


The Whole World and You

by Tubular



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Romantic Fluff, Slow Burn, Social Anxiety
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:53:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 33,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28260453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tubular/pseuds/Tubular
Summary: After a muddy incident leaves Gordie looking like a completely different person, he finds himself unrecognized to the public. Suddenly enticed by the anonymity, Gordie decides to carry on this facade and enjoy life as a "normal" person. Like a prince without a pauper, he soon finds that his plans become increasingly complicated as he begins to develop feelings for a shy, unassuming book seller. Can any of these romantic feelings be true if even his name is fake?
Relationships: Makuwa | Gordie/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 29
Kudos: 20





	1. The One Where They Meet

**Author's Note:**

> This is an incredibly self-indulgent fic so I can't promise if it'll be anyone's cup of tea.  
> That said, it is entirely my cup of tea and I'm extremely happy finally taking the time to work on something not for monetary gain or to please any algorithm. I don't know if I'll finish this but I do know that I'm enjoying writing something for once. It is my sincerest wish that you can understand and even support me in this endeavor. Thank you <3

Today has been a rotten day.

That was the thought repeating in Gordie’s head as the Rock-type gym leader stood at the station platform, shoulders hunched and hair still sopping wet from the misfortune that befell him earlier that day.

It was currently the small break in-between seasons of the League Challenge meaning that most leaders were doing some much-needed maintenance and prep for their gyms. Emphasis rests on the “most” aspect of that statement. Unlike the rest of the leaders, Gordie was forced to share his gym and thus was forced out of any league planning for the time being. Granted he knew of two other leaders that did the same but their agreement felt far more amicable than the slow, frustrating transition of power he had been stuck in. No doubt the Circhester gym would be his right now were it not for his mother’s stubbornness and unwillingness to let go.

All of that aside, Gordie was still never the type to stand around and do nothing. That was how he found himself volunteering to help out Milo, the gym leader of the Grass-type gym in Turffield, and how he wound up at the unfortunate end of a Dubwool headbutt.

The main goal of today was to move all the Wooloo to the South field in preparation for the colder months ahead. It was meant to be, as Milo had naively suggested, “easy as pie.” Milo, however, didn’t account for the Dubwool that had broken through the paddock and charged at full speed to protect the herd from their perceived aggressors, namely Milo’s younger sibling. Be it through sheer selflessness, an endless supply of stupidity, or an unfortunate mixture of all of the above, Gordie found himself shoving the young farmhand out of harm’s way and meeting face-to-face with the aggressive ram. All it took was one fierce headbutt to knock him off his feet and into the murky stream that laid at the bottom of the small hill. While the impact didn’t hurt- Gordie winced as he touched his side. Okay, maybe it hurt _a little_ \- the worst of the damage had occurred to his attire (and pride if we’re being honest.)

No longer able to wear his mud-ridden uniform, Gordie was forced to don some of Milo’s ill-fitting (and extremely tacky) clothes. An oversized wool cardigan and patchy jeans were hardly what he would consider a “chic and casual” look. Perhaps the biggest blow to his self-image was the loss of one of his contacts and the reveal of this secret to Milo. While Milo didn’t think anything of it, Gordie couldn’t help but feel deeply uncool as he was forced to wear his emergency pair of glasses and pull his wet hair back in an extremely sad ponytail. Frankly, his whole look was a mess and there was no doubt in his mind that his social media would soon be flooded with photos from observant fans. He hoped leaving as late as possible would spare him from this embarrassment.

This shame washed over him again as the train pulled into the station and he caught sight of his appearance in the window’s reflection. He couldn’t help but audibly groan. He made a quick hustle to an empty seat near the corner and kept his eyes focused on the ground, once again all in an effort to avoid being noticed.

This agonizing stealth mission was only bound to get harder as the train slowly pulled into Circhester. Now he was back on his home turf and had to move fast in order to avoid detection from any fans of his that may be lurking around this late at night. As Gordie promptly de-boarded the train, he felt a small tap on his shoulder. “Excuse me?” called out a feminine voice. Gordie turned around and was met with a young woman, clutching her phone and looking at him with hopeful eyes. The sight of his gym’s logo on her lapel caused a chilling creep of dread to slither up his veins. The jig was up.

Well, at the very least he could face this with grace. “Hey!” he said with forced enthusiasm, “You just caught me coming off the train here. Haha, what can I do for you? I’m in no state for a selfie but I’d be more than happy to give you an autograph!” Gordie flashed as charismatic a grin as possible.

However, rather than a high-pitched squeal or a nervous request, Gordie was instead met with a perplexed, “What?” The girl took a step back and looked at Gordie as if he were a talking Trubbish. Her face was a strange mixture of both confusion and low-key disgust, an expression that Gordie had recognized from girls getting creeped on in the shops but had never really dealt with himself. “I’m sorry I…” she had muttered out, holding her phone closer to her chest and taking another step back, “I just wanted to ask where Route 9 is...”

Gordie blinked. Well this was… odd. He had seen all sorts of reactions from his fans but never had any of them looked at him like she was. Surely she knew who she was talking to right? “Uh…” suddenly this was all very awkward. Gordie nervously shifted in his stance and rubbed the back of his neck. “S-sorry that was a joke. Hahah…” he said as he tried his best to smile playfully and hopefully laugh all of this off. Clearly the girl was not having any of this. Gordie cleared his throat and nodded. “A-ah well um. If you head to the very East of town you should find the Route 9 entrance.”

“Thanks,” the girl promptly responded before pocketing her phone and briskly making her way out of the station, leaving Gordie to stand there completely shell-shocked.

* * *

As Gordie made the long walk back home, he could not get that incident out of his mind. He couldn’t fathom getting that sort of a reaction out of one of his fans. Maybe she didn’t recognize him? Was his change in attire really that drastic?

Gordie decided to test out his current theory. He knew full-well that the owner of Bob’s Your Uncle would recognize him. He had always greeted him through the window with a small wave and received a wave back, so surely their familiar habit would still hold true despite his appearance? However, this assumption was quickly disproven as his hand wave was only met with a confused look and a sad, pitiful wave.

So that proved it! His get-up, as ridiculous and nerdy as it may seem, was somehow the perfect disguise for him to be able to roam around town as just a regular person. A giddy smile made its way onto Gordie’s face as he realized that he could finally walk around without fans crowding him at every possible moment, without having to monitor all of his actions, and without fear of what the latest gossip would bring. Granted he loved all of the attention and adoration he got from his fans, but all of that was in exchange of something he had been robbed of; Freedom.

All of this just made him tempted to take a quick selfie to see just how different his look was. Gordie pulled out his phone and saw the storm alert message he had received. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he had only now noticed just how cold and windy the town had gotten. Unfortunately it seemed that further experiments with his disguise would have to wait.

Despite that, he couldn’t help but walk with a renewed sense of excitement. He continued to wave enthusiastically at people, taking utmost the glee in their confusion as they clearly didn’t recognize him. This little game didn’t last long as most people began turning in for the night and stores began to close in preparation for the first winter storm of the season. No matter, he would soon be home anyway. At the very least the night would end on a good note.

As he turned the corner, Gordie was then met with a rather confusing and precarious sight. While it seemed that all the shops on this block had closed, there was one still seemingly open. Even more confusing was the fact that right outside the door stood a ladder with a woman desperately reaching up to grab the store sign. The wind was particularly fierce on this wide, open street and this made it all the more difficult for her to get a solid grip on the wooden sign as it kept slipping out of reach.

Gordie, again not one to simply stand around and do nothing, carefully approached the woman and called out, “Would you like a hand with that?”

The woman, already agitated with the task at hand, turned sharply and stared at him like a Deerling in the headlights. She crouched slightly and gripped onto the ladder, though it was clear with her shaky legs that she was having difficulty balancing on the narrow step. Despite this, she remained quiet and vigorously shook her head.

That was a… less than ideal response. He felt a slight tinge of guilt for startling the poor girl. “It’s fine, I don’t mind,” Gordie said with a soft, reassuring voice as he began to approach the ladder.

Once again, the woman shook her head only this time it was accompanied by her flatly stating, “I don’t need help. Please leave me alone.”

Gordie was taken aback by this. The woman glared at him with fierce, narrow eyes as she nervously got back to her feet and made another grab at the sign. A normal person would just take the hint and walk away. However, be it from his job or from his genetics, Gordie was more stubborn than a normal person.

It was clear to him that the woman was bound to fall and get seriously injured if she carried on like this. Most likely her refusal stemmed from not wanting to inconvenience him but all the same, he wasn’t going to just let her risk hurting herself. He pursed his lips and took another step forward. “Look, you’re clearly having a hard time with this. I insist on giving you a hand here.” This time Gordie took the initiative and gripped the bottom of the ladder.

The woman wildly whipped her head around and stared wide-eyed at Gordie’s brazen action. Her eyes darted all around him, taking full stock of the situation but never once making eye-contact. She turned away from him once more and quickly shouted, “I’m fine! Please _let go oftheladder.”_

Despite the severe tone of her voice, she still spoke far too fast for Gordie to really get any of that (not that he would heed it anyway.) Gordie let out an annoyed sigh but still did his best to remain as gentle and polite as possible, “I understand you’re scared up there but please let me help you.”

The woman fervently shook her head again. “No! Please go away!” she snapped.

Gordie furrowed his brow. It seemed that gentle was out the window now. “No! Let me help you!”

“NO! GO AWAY!” the woman shouted.

“JUST GRAB THE RUDDY SIGN!” Gordie shouted back in response.

Right as the woman on the ladder was gearing up to shout another response, a fierce gust of wind hurtled down the street. The force of the wind easily lifted up the wooden sign and unhooked it from it’s metal railing - the very thing the woman was trying to prevent was now occurring before her. “Ah, Orion!” she shouted as she reached for the sign with one last, drastic grab. She stood as high as she could, leaned her whole body towards the sign, and was finally able to grasp it. Despite the fact that she knew the fall would surely hurt, she smiled warmly as she held the sign close, happy that she was at least able to do something right.

However, instead of the cold, hard ground she instead made contact with something warm and soft. She blinked quizzically as she stared up into the night sky. Surely none of her Pokemon were able to catch her so what did she land on? Her worst fears were soon realized as she heard a low groan from behind her.

“So, did you get the ruddy thing?” was all Gordie could ask before everything went dark.

* * *

“See, this is the problem with Rock trainers.”

Gordie let out an annoyed grunt at his mother’s stern voice. He rolled his eyes and dryly retorted, “What? That we’re too bloody good at what we do? Yeah I know, it’s a real problem.”

Melony furrowed her brow. She gave a quick but firm squeeze on the arm she was currently bandaging up.

“Ow ow ow! Watch it with the goods, mum,” Gordie hissed as he pulled his arm away from his mother and gently caressed the rapidly forming bruise. He shot a glare at his mother who only returned with an intense stare.

“No, Gordie, the problem is that you all think you’re indestructible like your Pokemon. Just because your Coalossol can take a wallop doesn’t mean you can,” Melony said as she took hold of Gordie’s arm again and returned to treating it, her voice noticeably gentler as she continued “I know you have a habit of putting your body in harm’s way for the sake of others but… please try to be careful, Gord. Not just for me but for the sake of everyone who loves you.”

Gordie turned away from his mother, hoping she wouldn’t catch the pout evident on his face. As much as his arm pained him, it would pain him even more to admit she was right. Even so, he let out a small huff and grumbled, “Okay. I’ll try…”

* * *

Gordie awoke with a start.

He groaned as he rubbed his head, cursing the memory that his brain dared to drudged up. It seemed that all his bad dreams consisted of past lectures from his mother. He let out a frustrated sigh as he plopped back down. Oh what he would do to get nightmares instead.

As he mused on this prospect, it suddenly hit him; he didn’t know where he was. He shot straight back up and hastily scanned his surroundings. He found himself in what looked to be a living room, with various books and knick-knacks lining the dark, ornate walls. Upon further inspection, he realized that he was situated on a worn couch with a stained coffee table and a small fireplace directly facing it. The place was… unassuming to say the least. While grateful that he wasn’t in a dungeon or anything like that, he was still in an unfamiliar place and this caused a small panic to set in. Just as he was about to kick off the thick blanket over his body, he was suddenly startled by a voice.

“O-oh! You’re up.”

Gordie frantically whipped his head over to the direction of the voice.

Out from the shadows stepped out a young woman holding a small tray of tea and biscuits. She nervously glanced at him and then promptly returned her gaze back to the tray.

That eye-contact, however brief, suddenly had the events of the day hit Gordie like a freight train. Along with the memories came the sharp, excruciating pain emanating from his head and lower back.

“Oh. Let me um,” the woman promptly set the tray onto the coffee table and held out an ice pack to Gordie, “Sorry this is um, I don’t know if this is the right size.”

Gordie eyed the pack curiously and then looked back up his supposed host, now recognizing her as the woman on the ladder. Despite the fierce and harsh first impression she had given him outside, in here she seemed… small and vulnerable. He continued to stare at her as he gingerly took the ice pack. “Thanks…” he said, feeling almost immediate relief as he placed the pack behind his head. Now that she was in the light, he could finally take a good look at the young woman.

Even though she seemed imposing from his view at the bottom of the ladder, she was actually quite short and stout. Her black hair seemed to blend in with the shadows, the wild shape of her locks only noticeable due to how the glow of the fire bounced off her curls. In contrast to her ever-black hair were two strands of pure white streaks that ran down both sides of her head, framing her face perfectly. More noticeable was her sharp, piercing gaze accented by her thick eyebrows. The intensity of her stare seemed to betray the gentle, nervous tone her voice was taking. It seemed to him that the person before him was full of contradictions.

The most important observation at the moment being the person before him wasn’t a threat. Or, at the very least, that's how it seemed to him. Wanting to test this out, he returned his attention to her gaze and asked, “Where am I?”

Making eye-contact with him still seemed like it was out of the question and she quickly looked down. In spite of this reaction, she answered quickly and earnestly, “You’re in Chandelure’s Chapters. It’s uh.. It’s my book store. More specifically… you’re in my living room.”

“Uh-huh…” Gordie responded as he took another look around the room.

“I’m sorry. This is so weird uh…” the woman nervously pulled out a phone and set it on the coffee table before Gordie. “Look, here’s your phone. I promise I didn’t look at it or anything. It just fell out of your pocket. Please feel free to call whoever to pick you up. I know this is weird, I know this is uncomfortable, but I’m not forcing you to be here and I promise you I’m not a creep. Umm-” Before she could even finish whatever sentence she was saying, the woman quickly set Gordie’s bag onto the table. “All of your stuff is here. I set your Pokeballs on the side table but they’re all there…” she chewed on her bottom lip as she tried to recall the script she had practiced beforehand. “...Okay. I made you some tea. Have whatever you want, I’ll be in the other room.”

“Wait!” Gordie called out, stopping the young woman right in her tracks before she could make her quick escape. Judging from the pleading look on her face, it was clear that this was too much for her. Gordie felt the same way if he was being perfectly honest, especially after being bombarded with so much information all at once.

“Look um…” Gordie began, carefully planning out how he was going to word this, “I don’t think you’re a creep or anything. I just uh… I want to talk to you.”

The woman carefully studied Gordie’s expression, wondering if there was some sort of trickey behind his words. It was clear she didn’t trust him and was still incredibly wary of the whole situation. All the same, she cautiously sat down in the armchair by Gordie’s feet and sternly asked, “Okay… talk about what?”

“Well,” Gordie began as he turned his head towards her, “For starters, what’s your name?”

The woman pursed her lips and looked away. She remained still for a bit before finally responding, “...It’s Aviva.”

“Aviva,” Gordie hummed as he reflected on the name. It was a bit strange and didn’t sound like a traditionally Galarian name... but then again who was he to judge given his family’s track record? “I like it,” he said with a soft smile as he reached for one of the tea cups she had prepared.

Aviva jumped slightly at his kind words. No no. He’s just being polite. No one ever actually liked her name. Still though, she couldn’t deny the soft blush that betrayed her train of thought. “...Thank you.” She nervously fidgeted in her seat as she tried to think of what to say next. The obvious answer finally came to her, “And your name?”

Gordie grinned as he adjusted his posture and sat upright. “Oh! I’m Gor-...” He abruptly stopped as he caught sight of his reflection in the glass case of the grandfather clock behind Aviva. He suddenly recalled the events from earlier that night and realized just what a unique situation he had found himself in. Of course, there would be little to gain from him lying about his identity but he couldn’t imagine Aviva would act any less nervous if she knew she was talking to a celebrity. Really, he would do this for her sake!

His sudden stop did not go unnoticed however. Aviva arched an eyebrow and asked, “Your… name is Gore?” She was trying to be polite but honestly, she was genuinely confused.

“Ah! No no! I’m uh… I’m gor-na need some sugar for this please” Gordie quickly deflected as he lifted his cup towards Aviva.

“Oh.” Aviva immediately got to her feet, “I’m so sorry about that. I’ll go get some right now.” She hurriedly made her way out the room and presumably towards the kitchen.

Gordie let out an exhausted sigh. Despite how resolute he felt in his plan, telling a fib like that just didn’t feel right. It was one thing to do it to a random passerby but here it felt like… like it had crossed a line. All the same though, there was no denying that it felt nice not to be recognized and to just be treated like a normal person. Aviva returned in no time at all and handed Gordie the sugar bowl.

“Sorry again about that.”

Gordie smiled and responded, “No worries. Thank you for bringing all of this out!” As he poured the sugar into his tea, he stared tentatively at the liquid. He knew better than to accept random drinks from strangers. That said, he deduced that if she had been planning anything weird then she would have done it by now. Regardless, he held firm on not drinking until he saw Aviva take a sip of tea from the same kettle.

Aviva set her cup and saucer down on the side table and said, “Well?”

“Hm?” Gordie was reaching over for one of the biscuits when she had interrupted him.

“Uh… Your name?”

“Oh! Oh um.. My name is uh…” Crap. He didn’t think this one through. His eyes quickly darted around the room as he tried to search for something. How was it that in a room full of books he couldn’t find a single name! Suddenly, his eyes turned to the biscuits before him. He recognized the brand as a Kantonian import but the name escaped him.

“It’s fine if you don’t want t-”

“It’s Mack!” Gordie shouted abruptly.

Aviva blinked, a bit shocked at his sudden response.

Gordie grinned and let out a playful chuckle, “Y-yeah! Haha sorry, I was lost in my own thoughts there. Mack. My name is Mack.”

“Mack…” Aviva mumbled quietly as she took a long sip of tea.

“Yeah… Nice to meet you, Aviva,” Gordie said as he held out his hand towards her.

Aviva stared at his hand like it was some sort of alien tradition that she had never witnessed. She continued to stare before glancing at his face. Even though she was uncertain, there was a strange kindness to his eyes that suggested that this wasn’t all some elaborate prank on her. She swallowed her tea and nervously held out her hand. “...Nice to meet you too, Mack.”

Gordie gently took Aviva’s hand and gave it a firm, reassuring shake. Despite his earlier observations about her hard demeanor, her hand was surprisingly warm and soft. A walking contradiction if there ever was one.

This was… too much for her. Aviva quickly retracted her hand and set about to drink some more tea. Gordie let out a small chuckle before doing the same.

“So, now that we got all that out of the way, “ Gordie began as he grabbed a biscuit, “Mind telling me how I wound up knocked out?”

It seemed that the question came completely out of left field for Aviva judging by the way she nearly spit out her drink. A loud cough overtook her as she promptly set her drink down and hastily grabbed a napkin, doing her best to both cover up her spilled tea and the bright red blush on her face. Gordie couldn’t help but note; this was weirdly cute. “Uh-uhm!” Aviva cleared her throat and looked away, “Well… I um..”

Gordie couldn’t quite make out that last part since Aviva mumbled it so quietly. “Sorry, what?”

Aviva gripped her napkin and continued to look away. “I… I fell on you” she said in a near whisper, letting out another cough once she got her confession out. The harshness in her voice giving way to a soft vulnerability that she was wholly prepared to let anyone hear. _“Sorry...”_

“Ahh, right,” Gordie murmured in a rather amused tone before taking a bite of the biscuit. He remembered Aviva losing her balance on the ladder but, from his recollection of the angle, she wasn’t falling directly on him. It seemed that his natural instinct of putting himself in harm’s way for the sake of others may have been the true culprit here. As he munched, he shot a quick sideways glance at Aviva and noted the look of guilt and embarrassment on her face. Or, at the very least, he thought that was the look her face was making. It was honestly hard to tell with her unexpressive eyes.

At any rate, he may as well set the record straight here. “Mn, I remember you falling but I’m pretty sure I tried to catch you back there,” he paused briefly as he dusted the biscuit crumbs off the blanket, “Coulda sworn I had a decent grip on you too but I think at that point the sidewalk was already rather icy.”

This was definitely news to Aviva. She furrowed her brow and stared hard at the napkin balled up in her hands. Something about what he had said didn’t exactly compute. Unsure of how to even properly word her query, she blurted out, “Why?”

“Huh? Well I mean, that snow storm did blow in rather quickly,” Gordie said as-a-matter-of-factually.

Aviva couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “No. Why would you say that you tried to catch me?”

“Uhh,” Gordie raised an eyebrow as he mulled over the question. “Because that’s the right thing to do?”

“No,” Aviva snapped, clearly not having the patience for this little game she thought Gordie was playing, “Why would you try to catch me, specifically?” Her voice tinged with frustration and anger. She knew she was a sorry sight to see but the last thing she needed was to be in somebody’s debt or worse, to have somebody’s pity. If this was some sort of prank, she’d rather he up and tell her now than waste her time. No one would ever bother risking injury for someone like her. _“You don’t even know me,”_ she hissed.

This only made Gordie more confused. Why her? Specifically? Well because she was the one up on the ladder - duh. Of course he felt as though that wasn’t exactly the answer she was seeking. Gordie also felt that he didn’t need to know someone in order to perform a basic act of kindness. Completely at a loss as to what to say, Gordie instead shrugged his shoulders and stated, “Because you could’ve gotten hurt. If I can prevent someone from getting hurt then that’s more than enough for me. And look, it worked! You’re sitting pretty with nary a scratch on ya.”

“And you’re sitting with a massive bump on your head,” Aviva coldly replied.

“All while having some delicious tea and biscuits,” Gordie responded with.

“In some strange woman’s living room-”

“And having an incredibly entertaining conversation,” Gordie flashed a cocky grin over at Aviva as he rested his chin in his palm. “Need I go on?”

Aviva narrowed her eyes and scowled at the man’s audacity to try to spin this into anything but negative. The absolute nerve of him! Rather than to admit defeat (and even worse, admit that his charm was working) she turned away and let out a frustrated huff. “Whatever,” she murmured as she crossed her arms.

Gordie couldn’t help but snicker a little at her reaction. While there was definitely a lot to unpack there, he was more than happy to take this small win of wills. Still though, there was no need to take a victory lap and press any further. He decided that maybe he could get her to open up more if he changed the topic, “So… Why exactly were you so desperate to save the sign?”

With arms crossed and face averted, Aviva bluntly responded, “It was expensive.”

An unamused smirk formed on Gordie’s lips. “I bet it was but, personally, I don’t know many shop keeps who would risk a winter storm to save something that can be easily written off as a business expense.”

Aviva let out an annoyed sigh. He clearly wasn’t going to drop this topic anytime soon so she might as well indulge him a little to the best of her abilities. “It’s Orion’s sign,” she stated.

“Orion?” Gordie blinked curiously and took another quick look around the room. Not to insult Aviva’s living situation or anything but it really didn’t look like more than one person lived here. “If you don’t mind me asking - who is Orion?”

Aviva pursed her lips and slowly uncrossed her arms. “...You can come out now.”

Gordie had little time to react when suddenly a bright blue gust of light blew into the room. The glowing trail of light bounced around the room before making its way to Aviva’s side.The shimmering figure let off a few sparks before dimming it’s light and revealing it’s true shape.

“Orion, this is Mack. Mack, this is Orion,” Aviva said, her deadpan expression shifting slightly to (what can be perceived as) a proud smile for under her arm floated a bright, beautiful Chandelure.

“Ooh! Well hello there! Oh, you’re absolutely stunning aren’t you?” Gordie exclaimed excitedly as he leaned forward in his seat. While Ghost and Fire types weren’t exactly his thing (to be honest, he hated dealing with both on the battlefield) he did appreciate the intense strength and quiet dignity that every Chandelure seemed to radiate. All the same though, Ghost Pokemon were notoriously unpredictable. It was with this in mind that Gordie carefully held out his hand to the ornate Pokemon.

Orion immediately hovered to Gordie and did his best to greet him. Having no hands to shake with, Orion instead placed the smooth glass of his face up against Gordie’s palm, taking great care not to accidentally burn him with it’s fiery arms.

An enthusiastic grin made its way onto Gordie’s face as he took in the sight of the Ghost Pokemon resting beneath his hand. He had always imagined a Chandelure’s face to be incredibly hot, something akin to molten glass. Fortunately, for the sake of his hand, he found Orion’s face to be immensely cool to the touch. He’s heard of Kantonian Pontyas being able to control the flames on their body to allow trustworthy riders to mount them, perhaps something similar was applicable to Chandelures?

“He’s saying he’s sorry,” Aviva bluntly stated.

Gordie flashed Aviva a perplexed look, “Sorry? Sorry for what?”

Before Aviva could answer, Orion gently floated away from Gordie’s palm and made his way over and behind the couch. The Ghost pokemon quickly returned with the shop sign in question. One look at the sign was all it took for the whole situation to make sense to Gordie.

The sign was made of a lush, dark oak with painstakingly hand-carved details such as the ornate floral work and expertly crafted lettering. _“CHANDELURE’S CHAPTERS”_ was beautifully centered around the unmistakable portrait of Aviva’s own Chandelure, Orion. While to him most Chandelures looked alike, he could tell this was far more personal by the unique pattern of swirls present on Orion’s arms.

“I see,” Gordie said as he gently ran his fingers over the sign, confirming that it was in fact made of real wood and wasn’t just some highly convincing plastic.

“Channn de lure~,” Orion hummed softly as he pulled the sign away from Gordie and hugged it.

Gordie took a quick glance at Aviva and noticed just… how soft her expression has gotten at the sight of her Pokemon. If he didn’t know any better, that was probably the closest thing to a smile he’s seen out of her all day. He couldn’t help his own smile coming to his face as he observed her. “You know-”

Aviva turned to face Gordie, her expression defaulting back to its usual indifference.

Well, it was nice while it lasted. Regardless, Gordie continued, “Not a lot of trainers would go the extra mile and risk physical harm over something like this for their Pokemon... But I totally get it.” Gordie flashed a wide grin, “Frankly, I would’ve done the same!”

“Mn,” Aviva mused, “Considering how you wound up here, I don’t know if that’s a good or bad sign of my trainer abilities.”

Wait, was that a joke? Gordie let out a surprised chuckle and smiled at her response. “Well, seeing as how happy your Chandelure is, I’d take it as a good sign... Course, the better sign is the one he’s literally holding but hey, who’s keeping track?”

Oh. Oh that was an awful, awful joke.

Aviva’s face bore no reaction to it as she brought her napkin back up to her lips.

The embarrassment Gordie felt over his joke was almost palpable and he quickly looked away from Aviva. As he was about to profusely apologize, he heard the strangest sound. It was a soft, low rumble - like the vibration of a phone lost in the couch cushions. Very quickly though, the noise morphed into a tender, chittering sound. Although muffled, it sounded a lot like… giggling? He turned to face Aviva only to find that she was desperately trying to suppress her quiet laugh with the napkin in hand. Gordie’s grin returned, wider than ever, and he quickly joined in on the laughter. “Thought it was that funny, eh?”

“No!” Aviva barked, poorly hiding the smile on her face, “It was _terrible._ ”

“Mhmm,” Gordie leaned back onto the couch and gave Aviva a knowing look.

Aviva, once again, let out a huff and looked away.

Another small chuckle left Gordie’s lips. This was a lot more fun than he had been expecting. That said, maybe it was a bad idea to lie back down because now he felt a lot more tired than he had been expecting. The full weight of today’s events now weighed heavily on him like a snoozing Shuckle....

Oh, that’s right! He craned his head upward to catch a small glimpse of the side table with his Pokeballs. He turned slightly as he reached over to take hold of each ball. One by one, he was able to tell just who was in which ball. Suffice to say, he felt a huge wave of relief wash over him once it was clear that everyone was safe and accounted for. He paid particularly close attention to the last Pokeball he held in his hands.

Aviva watched anxiously as he carefully examined each of his Pokeballs, worried that she may have somehow missed one or inadvertently did something wrong. As he held the Pokeball in his hand, she said, “Were you wanting to take it out?”

Gordie shot a look at his Pokeball and then to Aviva. “Would that be alright? Don’t worry, he’s pretty small and really well-behaved. I’d feel bad for imposing but... you did show me your partner Pokemon and all.”

“Orion isn’t my partner Pokemon,” Aviva flatly stated, “Go ahead and let your partner out.”

Wait, Orion wasn’t her partner Pokemon? While his curiosity was now extremely piqued but he felt it best to put a pin in that conversation. For now, he was more than eager to let his longtime buddy out. With a bright flash of light, a small figure formed by Gordie’s feet. The light soon took shape and formed… a bright red shell. Gordie rolled his eyes, “Oi for the love of-” He leaned over and gently knocked on the Pokemon’s firm exterior.

A low groan emanated from the shell as soon one, two, three, four yellow noodle-like limbs emerged from the carapace. A final yellow noodle slowly rose up and stared at Gordie with an unamused expression. “Shuu.”

“Oh, I’m sorry! Did I disturb your sleep, mate? I was only knocked out stone cold, couldn’t help but notice you didn’t come out to check,” Gordie playfully chided as his Shuckle threw his head back and groaned again like some sort of moody teenager. Gordie let out a small laugh before returning his attention back to Aviva. “Aviva, this little bugger is Shuckle. Shuckle, say hello to our lovely host.”

Shuckle could hardly be bothered to move and barely glanced at Aviva. Gordie gently took hold of one of Shuckle’s arms and playfully waved the limp limb at Aviva.

Aviva let out a small, amused snort at the sight and waved back at Shuckle. While Aviva was not particularly fond of Bug-type Pokemon, she always did love the cute little expression evident on every Shuckle’s face. That said, it seemed that the usually chipper look that defined the species was missing and replaced with an incredibly tired look. He was most likely asleep when he was brought out - the small yawn that escaped him definitively proved this.

As expected, Shuckle’s yawn rubbed off on Gordie who himself let out a yawn of his own. “Oh, uh, pardon me. I didn’t realize how tired I am,” Gordie said as he stretched and leaned back onto the couch. Shuckle immediately curled up on the blankets and retreated back into his carapace.

“Ah, right,” Aviva said quietly as the conversation she was dreading so much suddenly loomed so close. She had hoped that her surprise visitor would just disappear or someone would come pick him up before she would even humor the idea. Really, anything to spare her from the prospect of inviting a complete stranger to spend the night. It’s not that she minded or anything! She just… didn’t know what to do. Hell, she’s never even been to a slumber party. Of course, adults don’t have slumber parties right? Well, they probably do but they sure as hell don’t call them slumber parties. Oh Arceus, would he think that she was after something if she brought any of this up? How do you even begin to approa-

“Hey.”

Aviva’s train of thought immediately derailed. It seemed her brain was so keen on feeding her incredibly uncomfortable scenarios that she hardly noticed her guest was attempting to talk to her. “What?” she asked.

“Is it cool if I crash here tonight? I don’t think I can convince a cab to come get me in this storm and honestly, I’d rather not bother,” Gordie scrolled through his phone for a bit before setting it back down on the coffee table. “I know it’s a weird thing to ask but I promise I won’t do anything. Feel free to keep your Chandelure standing guard if you’re unsure.”

Uh… Huh? Aviva furrowed her brows and stared, completely flummoxed at the amount of ease with which Mack defused the awkward situation. Oh wait, now it was HER turn to say something… What should she say? Of course a normal person would probably be okay with this but, well, a normal person was probably used to visitors. In fact, she was pretty sure he was the first visitor she had allowed in the flat above the bookstore… but she also couldn’t just throw him out in the cold. Aviva glanced over at her Chandelure who promptly gave her a small nod. She nodded in return and then said, “Yes, that’s fine.”

Gordie let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding and smiled. “Thanks, I really appreciate it.” Now with the go-ahead, Gordie fully lied back down on the couch and did his best to adjust himself under the blanket that was already provided to him. He wasn’t used to sleeping in his street clothes, let alone clothes that weren’t even his to begin with. Fortunately for him it seemed his body was too tired to care about it. He was more than happy to have a comfy space to lie down on and a soft blanket to cover himself. As he let out a content sigh, he looked up to see that Aviva was quickly clearing off the table and set to head out. “Wait,” Gordie called out quietly.

Aviva, slightly startled by the sudden talk, turned around and looked down at him.

“Um, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Gordie said, the words coming out far quicker than his brain had realized. Honestly, he didn’t even mean to call out to Aviva, his stupid mouth just acted on impulse. He was never the type to hold back and stay quiet on what he wanted in life, Arceus knows there are countless interviews detailing his plans to run Circhester’s gym full-time. He was usually so sure in his actions but now he found himself completely baffled at his own choice.

Aviva remained still and quiet throughout all of this. She had thought the conversation was done by now, the social transaction was complete, all the basic qualifications of “being normal” were met. What could he want now? Maybe it was something as simple as more pillows. Yeah, that was probably it. With this in mind, Aviva managed to work up the courage and asked, “What do you want?”

What DOES he want? Gordie’s impulsive choices had always made sense to him, they always stemmed from an obvious want, but here he was at a complete loss. Well, for one he wanted Aviva to stay. “I want you to stay,” he said, his mouth once again bypassing anything resembling a complete and rational thought.

“Why?” Aviva asked curtly. She knew she wouldn’t get off this easy. Now came the part where he would get mad at her, where she had messed up somehow, where she had once again failed in the most basic of human interactions.

Why? Gordie didn’t know why he wanted her to stay - he just did. Maybe it was something as simple as basic companionship? Maybe he felt vulnerable in a stranger’s house? Maybe this was the first time someone saw beyond his surface-level personality and spoke to him on a real, human level that he hasn’t felt in years and that he feared this would all disappear in the morning? “Haha woah there, reel it back now!” Gordie thought to himself as he knew for a fact he didn’t want to unpack all of that right now. He had to bullshit something and fast. “Well uh,” he began as his two braincells cobbled together something vaguely resembling sound reasoning, “My back!”

“Y… Your back?” While Aviva mentally braced herself for the worst she… didn’t really expect something as obtuse as that.

“Y-yeah! My back. Ooh, ow, yep it still really hurts. I’m worried I may need something before I fall asleep while you’re out. I’d feel a lot better if you maybe um… stuck around? You know, for medical purposes.”

“Medical purposes,” Aviva repeated to herself. Well that was certainly odd. In spite of how ridiculous it sounded, she couldn’t deny that she didn’t immediately hate the idea. Half of her desperately wanted to run away and lock herself in her bedroom while the other half...didn’t completely dislike this human interaction. Maybe this was how well-socialized people felt when talking to others? If so then by Arceus, what an amazing power they wield! Still though, she didn’t know how to fully approach this situation. “Okay. I’ll stay but… what do I do?”

Gordie felt a strange amount of glee in hearing that Aviva would stick around for a bit longer. His happiness was only slightly dampened by her off-putting question. “What do you mean ’what do you do?’”

All Aviva could do was stand completely still as she tried to work out a solution.

Deciding to show some mercy on the poor girl, Gordie gave her a reassuring smile and said, “Well, what do you usually do in here?”

Aviva glanced at the small book left beside the armchair. “I read.”

“Then why don’t you read?” Gordie asked.

“Outloud?”

Gordie let out a small laugh. “Oh, you gonna read me a bedtime story?”

Aviva scoffed. “Please. Like you would enjoy it.”

“What?” Gordie leaned up on his elbows, both curious and slightly hurt by the implication. “Why wouldn’t I like it?”

“It has no pictures in it,” Aviva said frankly.

“Ohh…” Gordie nodded in agreement before stopping outright, “Wait! Was that a dig at me?”

Gordie was about to take offense to this when he saw the small smile pulling at the edges of Aviva’s mouth that threatened to break her stoic expression. At the sight of this, Gordie couldn’t help but smile and laugh at the second joke he had gotten out of Aviva tonight.

Aviva rolled her eyes as she made her way back to the armchair, allowing herself to fully smile if only for a quick second. She grabbed the wool throw blanket placed on the headrest and set it across her lap. It took some adjusting for her to get fully tucked in but at long last she was finally comfy. Orion wasted no time at all handing her the small book before resting by the side of the chair. “Is this okay?” she asked, still confused by his request. After all this is what she usually does in her living room except, you know, by herself.

Gordie smiled softly at Aviva and nodded, “Yeah, that’s just great.” He took this time to snuggle back into the couch and into the incredibly fluffy blanket provided to him. Almost instantly he could feel himself at the very edge of sleep. _“Oh right, my glasses,”_ Gordie thought as he set to pull them off. Feeling a bit cheeky, he decided to steal one quick look at Aviva before taking off his glasses.

Aviva was already steeped in her own little literary world. He couldn’t help but stare as her usually sharp eyes softened into a peaceful gaze with the warm glow of the fireplace softly wrapping around her curves. It was then that he realized he was finally seeing Aviva in her completely natural state. It was… nice to say the least. He had forgotten just how nice it was to not fall asleep by yourself. Of course he always had his Pokemon with him but that was different in a way he couldn’t fully describe. Fully satisfied with the sight, Gordie set his glasses aside and went back under the blanket. “Hmm,” a comfortable sigh left Gordie’s lips as the coziness of the situation soon enveloped him in it’s tender embrace. “Good night, Aviva,” he murmured as he surrendered himself to sleep.

Aviva hesitated for a bit before shyly responding, “... Good night, Mack.”

Ah. Right.

The last, pleasant words of the day struck Gordie like a bitter gust of frigid wind. It felt like the curtain of this delicate scene had lifted slightly and forced him to take a peek into his reality. How can any of these warmth be for him if he was pretending to be someone else? Rather than to think about the ramifications his lie may have, Gordie decided to ignore all of that and worry about that later.

The curtain will rise someday but for now, he was going to enjoy it for all it’s worth.


	2. The One Where They Have Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gordie spends the night at a Aviva's home and tries his best to befriend her. Of course this is easier said than done, especially with one party being woefully inexperienced with making friends. But hey, a stranger is just a friend you haven't met before, right?

The smell of eggs permeated the chill, Circhester morning air.

The clatter of dishes and the low hum of the microwave coupled with the scent of breakfast brought on a warm, familiar feeling to Gordie as he began to gently stir from his sleep. He had half-expected to be back in his old home somehow, that this was one of the weekends he had decided to visit. Now led on by both hunger and curiosity, Gordie slowly stretched as he opened his eyes. His blurry view immediately met with what his sleep-addled brain could only classify as some sort of purple demon creature thing.

Gordie let out a sharp gasp, immediately sitting up on the couch and bringing the blanket up to his chest as if it would be an effective defense maneuver. The purple demon creature thing continued to stand there and stare at him as he frantically reached over to the side table for his glasses. He steadied his nerves the best he could as he slipped on his glasses. With his vision finally clear, he was pleased to find that the purple demon creature thing was actually… no, no, still a purple demon creature thing - only now he could confirm that it was some sort of Pokemon and didn’t seem to pose any harm to him.

“Minerva!” a familiar voice chided in a hushed tone.

The Pokemon, clad in purple and donning what seemed like a large witch hat, snickered playfully at Gordie before floating away.

Well, that was one heck of a wake up call. Now fully awake, Gordie sat up on the couch and reassessed his surroundings. The events of the previous day played back in his head as he took a proper look around the room. Perhaps it was too dark to tell last night but it was only now that he noticed the large, ornate window at the end of the room. The frost made it hard to distinguish much of the outside but Gordie could still tell that it was quite early in the morning. The rest of the room was surprisingly smaller than he had expected. What he initially thought of as the living room seemed to function as more of a general area with large bookcases lining the walls and a small television mounted above the fireplace. To his right he could see the open kitchen and standing right in the middle, with her back turned to the living room, was the woman that he had recently become acquainted with; Aviva.

“Hey, you can’t just be all up in people’s faces like that, Minerva, that’s like, mad creepy,” Aviva softly reprimanded the purple Pokemon as she rinsed some berries. Much as she loved her Mismagius, the ghost clearly had no concept of personal space. In a way, she envied the way Ghost Pokemon tended to ignore social convention and wished she could be that bold. All the same though, there was a reason most ghosts touted the negative stereotype of being ill-mannered creeps.

“Mi Mi~” the Pokemon playfully chirped, obviously not taking any of this lecture to heart and instead using this opportunity to cuddle against Aviva’s face.

Aviva let out a soft giggle as she tried to gently nudge the Pokemon away. “Yeah yeah I bet you’re REALLY sorry. Look, just promise me you’ll stay hidden, okay?”

“Mis- _maaag_ ,” the Mismagius murmured sadly.

A small frown made its way onto Aviva’s face as she grabbed a small dish towel and quickly dried off her hands. She held out her hand and gently stroked Minvera’s face. “I know, sweetheart, I know. But I can’t risk anyone seeing you until your license renewal is all cleared up, you know that.”

Minerva leaned into her touch and let out a wistful sigh. “Mismagius…” she conceded, nodding dejectedly but fully understanding her unique situation.

“License renewal?” Gordie wondered to himself as he carefully and quietly observed this interaction. Despite the rather serious subject matter, he found himself absolutely endeared by this side of Aviva that he had only caught a glimpse of the previous night. He had assumed that her stilted, all too formal way of talking was just how she always spoke but that clearly wasn’t the case given how casual and playful her tone was when addressing the Ghost Pokemon. Still though, the mention of a license was incredibly concerning to him.

Aviva smiled softly and gave her Pokemon a brisk hug. “That’s my girl. Now, go get Orion to watch the fire for me. I think I still have time to make my lunch for the day before this dude wakes up.”

Gordie quickly ducked back onto the couch as Aviva turned around and made her way to the fridge. He certainly didn’t want her to find out he was eavesdropping on such a personal conversation. As he tried his best to think of a safe strategy to “wake up” his thoughts were interrupted by a loud, ear-shattering screech.

_**“MISMAAAAAG~”**_ the banshee pokemon shrieked. She took a deep breath in preparation to scream again when Aviva promptly placed her hand over the cheeky Pokemon’s mouth.

“Minerva!” Aviva scolded in a harsh whisper, as if there was even the slimmest possibility that Mack was still asleep, “I told you to GET Orion! NOT to scream for him!”

The Mismagius giggled under Aviva’s hand, a mischievous grin clearly evident on her face. It wasn’t very often that Aviva had guests over, of COURSE she had to make her presence known somehow! Before Aviva could scold her again, Minerva floated away from her and quickly vanished behind a wall, leaving Aviva to stand there startled and frustrated by her actions.

Well, he supposed there was no use in pretending to be asleep now. Gordie stood up from the couch and stretched, doing his best imitation of the typical “waking up” action he had seen on television. As he stretched his arms out, he glanced over his shoulder and sent a smile Aviva’s way. “That’s one hell of an alarm you got there,” he said, playing dumb and letting out an unassuming laugh.

Despite his best efforts to seem as open and friendly as possible, Aviva still immediately froze up and stood there silently. She carefully studied his face, wondering if he had seen her Mismagius at all. After concluding that she was in the clear, she shuffled in her stance slightly before muttering, “Sorry.”

Gordie continued to smile as he shook his head. “Nothing to be sorry about, best I get up soon anyway.” He straightened up his wool cardigan and after smoothing out some of the wrinkles, he looked back up at Aviva and said with a cheerful voice, “G’morning, Aviva!”

Aviva stared wide-eyed at Mack. She was used to hearing similar greetings from early morning patrons and friendly cashiers. To her it seemed like a standard blanket greeting that everyone said, there was really nothing more to it. And yet, she couldn’t deny the warm feeling she got from hearing it so early in the morning, in the confines of her own home. How long has it been since someone genuinely greeted her like this? Not wanting to leave him hanging for long, she mustered every bit of courage she could spare and quietly replied, “...Good morning, Mack.”

Gordie was quite chuffed to see this reaction from Aviva. While true, hearing his fake name did put a slight damper on things, he was still incredibly happy to see that she didn’t immediately try to run away or outright ignore him. Befriending her was definitely going to be a process but he was happy to see some progress already being made.

This small pause was soon ended as Gordie realized just how unkempt he felt. “Hey, if you don’t mind, could I use your bathroom please? I just need to freshen up real quick,” Gordie said, hoping he wasn’t crossing a line or anything. He was planning to take a shower and get into some actual decent clothing once he made his way back home but for now he could really use some water on his face.

Wait, her bathroom? A stranger wanted to use her bathroom with her bathroom things? A slight panic set in as Aviva tried to recollect if the bathroom was even fit for someone else to use. She had cleaned it recently so it should be fine, right? Maybe it would be better if he used the bathroom next door? No no, that would be weird. It seemed she would just have to bite the bullet here and hope for the best. She couldn’t just, not let him use the bathroom. Maybe she could trust him here, just a little. Aviva nodded and pointed to her left. “The very last door at the end of the hall.”

“Thanks!” Gordie said, flashing a wink and a nod as he grabbed his bag and made his way down the hall. He entered the bathroom and proceeded to follow his morning routine as best as he could manage given the circumstances. Much like the rest of the flat, Aviva’s bathroom was small and slightly cramped. Perhaps he was just too used to the nice home his gym earnings was able to afford him but… did people really live with the tub and the shower being the same thing? Despite thinking himself as a well-mannered guest, Gordie couldn’t help but idly snoop around. He wasn’t about to rummage through the cupboards or anything, but he did open the medicine cabinet just to see if there was perhaps any way he could jerry rig a way to brush his teeth. The bottom row of the cabinet was lined with several prescription bottles, not entirely uncommon but still a bit concerning. He could see what was written on some of the labels but, as tempted as he was to look, he knew that was a line he dared not cross. As he continued his search for floss, he couldn’t help but notice that Aviva kept a lot of soap. Granted he hasn’t been in a woman’s bathroom in quite a long time but surely this was… a ridiculous amount of soap. Soaps of all shapes and sizes sat in the cabinet, by the sink, and on the small shelf, all neatly displayed and perfectly arranged. Maybe this was a hobby of hers? All of the soaps were individually wrapped save for the open soap left on the ceramic dish by the sink. It seemed that at one point it may have been molded in the shape of a rose but numerous washings have since buffed out the details. Still though, it smelled absolutely lovely and the lilac color shimmered in the light. He felt almost guilty for using it but, well, not washing his hands was a far worse crime. “I’ll have to ask her where she got all of these,” he mumbled to himself as he set about finishing up in there.

Aviva was in the middle of setting the plates down when she noticed that Mack had re-entered the room. Judging from his expression, it seemed that he wasn’t too offended at the chaotic state of her bathroom. Slightly relieved by this, Aviva placed the last plate down on the table. She had recited the following line over and over again in her head and even now she was struggling to get the words out. She took a deep breath and blurted out, “There’s food on the table, it’s just random leftovers, nothing special but here you go helpyourself.” Mentally berating herself for messing up the line, she turned away and tried to busy herself with preparing her lunch.

“Oh! I uh, thank you!” Gordie exclaimed, pleasantly surprised by the sweet gesture. As he approached the table, he noticed a familiar face was already seated. It seemed that at some point his Shuckle found his way to the table and already made himself at home. He was seated on a stack of books placed on one of the chairs looking pleased as punch and enjoying a large bowl of chopped up berries. “Well well, what do we have here?” Gordie said in an accusatory tone as he gently pulled the chair away from the table.

“Hm?” Aviva turned around to see that Mack had found out about the meal she had given to his Pokemon. Instantly she felt a large wave of guilt wash over her as she realized she may have done something wrong. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, “I didn’t know what to do.” Admittingly, it was hard to deny a Pokemon food when it was tugging at her skirt and forlorning sighing at the mere sight of food. She had hoped that feeding him berries would be the safe option but evidently she was wrong. As she was about to spiral into another episode of self-deprecation, she was soon stopped by the sound of laughter.

“You little sneak!” Gordie said with a laugh as he crossed his arms on the top of the chair and looked down at the guilty Shuckle. “You harassed her, didn’t you?”

“Shuu?” Shuckle purred innocently, no doubt giving Gordie his best attempt at a puppy-dog look.

This had no effect on Gordie and instead he rolled his eyes at the sheer audacity of his Pokemon. “And after I had sung your praises about how well-mannered you are,” Gordie continued to playfully scold, gently pinching Shuckle’s face.

“Shuckle,” the Pokemon huffed out, turning its nose up and looking away from Gordie.

Gordie let out another laugh as he pushed the chair back to its original position. He glanced up at Aviva and smiled, “The little bugger likes to pretend I’m starving him to death. I bet he didn’t mention the extra large helping of curry he had last night. Isn’t that right?” Shuckle ignored Gordie this time and returned to eating its meal. “I’m really sorry about this. Would you like me to pay for the food? I can’t imagine Leppa berries being exactly cheap this time of year.”

More than anything, Aviva was just relieved that she didn’t mess up and accidentally went against any sort of diet Mack had set up for his Shuckle. True, the berries did cost a pretty penny but she honestly didn’t mind, she was used to reservering the very best things for others. “It’s fine,” she said, placing another bowl of chopped up berries by Shuckle just in case he wanted more.

“You sure?” Gordie asked, taking the initiative here and pulling out a chair for himself.

“I’m sure.”

“Hm, well, thank you. I owe you one,” Gordie said as he took his seat. It was now that he was finally able to see that quote unquote “random leftovers” that Aviva had prepared for him. It was quite a spread of various fruits, different sides, and all manner of jams placed on the table. Most notably however was the dish placed right in front of him. “Is this… is this egg-in-a-hole?” he asked, eagerly grabbing a knife and a fork.

“Egg-in-a-hole?” Aviva repeated in an amused tone as she began the arduous task of scrubbing the skillet, “Back where I’m from we just call it eggs in a basket.”

“Oh?” Gordie didn’t expect a full reply from Aviva. Perhaps she was too focused on the dishes to really think about the fact that she was having a conversation? He decided to try his luck a bit. “And where is that?”

“Unova,” Aviva plainly responded as she struggled with a charred piece of bacon, “Far far west, where the coast meets the sea.”

_“Unova? Well, that certainly explained a lot of things,”_ Gordie thought to himself as he watched Aviva. For one, he could finally pinpoint where her accent and slang had come from. He had assumed she just watched a lot of Unovan movies but actually being from there made a lot more sense. More importantly however, it helped bring a little more clarity on the license renewal Aviva had mentioned to her Mismagius earlier. “Unova huh?” Gordie finally responded, “I’ve never been but I’ve heard a lot of interesting things. You miss it?”

Now that she was done cleaning, there was little to distract Aviva from realizing all that she had revealed. She stared wide-eyed at the empty sink as she tried to collect her thoughts. Mack mentioning Unova brought an inordinate of horrible memories back into her mind. Oh, why would she let that slip out? She turned on the faucet and watched intently, hoping all of these bad feelings would flow away like the suds down the drain. “No. I do not miss it.”

Aviva’s change in tone made it clear to Gordie that she had closed back up again. Ah well. He let out a small, disappointed sigh. There was still a lot left unanswered but for now he was quite content with all the new information he had learned about his generous host.

This sudden trip down memory lane was the last thing Aviva needed today. She groaned slightly as she rubbed her temples, mentally cursing herself for being tricked like this. As she did so, she caught a quick glance at Mack and noticed he hadn’t touched his food. Oh no, did she cook it wrong? Maybe it was meant to be prepared differently in Galar? Did she somehow insult his culture and his palette in one fell, eggy swoop? She swallowed the hard lump that had formed at the back of her throat and asked outright, “Why aren’t you eating?”

Gordie was taken slightly aback by the harsh tone Aviva’s voice took. Perhaps he overstepped his boundaries here? Hoping to reel this back a bit, Gordie replied, “Well, I’m waiting for you.”

Aviva darted her eyes back and forth, incredibly suspicious of the whole situation. “Waiting for me to do what?”

“For you to join me.”

“In… prayer?”

Gordie let out a defeated groan. Maybe prayer would be a good idea if only so Arceus could grant him the patience to deal with this woman. “No, Aviva,” he said, putting on a smile despite his slight frustration, “I want you to join me for breakfast. I noticed that you prepared a plate for yourself but you’ve yet to put it on the table.”

Aviva raised an eyebrow and quickly glanced at the plate she had set aside for herself on the counter. Truth be told, she was planning on taking it to her bedroom and eating by herself. She figured it would be best to leave Mack alone with Shuckle and not force him to deal with her presence or anything. Why in the world would he want to have breakfast with her? Despite these paranoid thoughts, she acquiesced and slowly brought her plate and drink to the table. She couldn’t bear to directly face her guest as she ate so she decided to sit down across Shuckle. Even so, it was a relatively short table and she still found herself unusually close to Mack. “Is this… okay?” she asked, not looking up from her plate.

A victorious smile spread across Gordie’s face. “Better than okay,” he said in a reassuring tone. “Now come on, best dig in now before it’s only fit for Eiscues to eat.” He let out a small laugh before finally getting to enjoy the meal Aviva had prepared.

“Right,” Aviva nodded, turning away bashfully in an attempt to hide the smile tugging at her lips. Aviva was not at all used to eating with others. Even as a small child, family dinners were scarce and she often found herself eating microwave dinners at her desk. The very idea of eating with others would sometimes send Aviva into a panic but… there was something nice about this. Maybe it was the way Mack enthusiastically ate the meal prepared, maybe it was the way he complimented her cooking, or maybe it was the way he continued to scold Shuckle after the little devil had stolen a bit of toast right out of his hand? Whatever the case, Aviva actually found herself enjoying sharing her breakfast. While incredibly frightening and worrying this was… really, really nice.

* * *

With the plates clear of all their food, Aviva set about picking them up and placing them in the sink. “Are you sure you don’t want anything else?” Aviva asked, leaning over to grab the empty bowl in front of Shuckle.

Gordie let out a satisfied sigh and held up his hands defensively. “No no, I’m all good. Thank you again! Ah, would you like me to help out with that?” he asked as he stood up and attempted to take the plates from Aviva’s hands.

Aviva quickly relented and swung the pile of dishes away from Mack. “I got it,” she stated, obviously leaving no room for any sort of discussion on the matter.

Well, it was worth a shot at least. Now up from his seat, Gordie glanced over at the clock above the kitchen trash can and noted the time. While he didn’t have anything too pressing on the docket, he did promise to meet up with Milo for lunch at some point to return his clothes. He figured Aviva would have to open up shop sometime soon so he would just leave when she did so.

Until then… what would he do? Not at all content with just standing around and doing nothing, Gordie made his way back over to the couch and folded the blanket he had used. He certainly didn’t know where the blanket or pillows belonged but for now he was satisfied leaving them on a neatly arranged pile. With that done and all of his belongings gathered, Gordie decided to take this time to walk around the apartment a little. He glanced over at Aviva, her back turned to him as she rinsed the plates. Hopefully she wouldn’t mind him stretching his legs for a bit.

Gordie leisurely strolled past the large bookshelves, his eyes skimming the spines and recalling some titles here and there. Placed along the shelves, in front of the books, were dozens and dozens of candles - many of them bearing the same logo as the soaps in her bathroom did. Like the soaps, the candles were all neatly arranged in a specific order. They looked to be of more use to Aviva since, judging from the amount of dust evident on the shelves, it seemed that most of these books haven’t been pulled out in quite some time. As he thought this, he noticed a small break in the dust from a book that had been put away rather recently. He bent down slightly to get a quick look at the title; The Idiot’s Guide to Making Friends. _“Huh, seems like she didn’t take to it,”_ he thought to himself as he continued his browsing.

He mused on this for a bit as he came across a short display shelf lined with little Alcreamie figures. Gordie let out an amused laugh as he gently took one of the vinyl toys and examined it. He immediately recognized what they were - “Alcreamie Surprises.” They were these cute, collectable figures found in special pastries sold by the Battle Cafe. He didn’t really have any sort of affinity for them but he knew many of his female trainers absolutely adored collecting and trading them. That said, he’s never seen a collection as immense and organized as this. The cafe chain always boasted that they made every single variation of Alcreamie but Gordie always thought that was just a fake marketing gimmick. Clearly he had been wrong about this! He noticed that there were a few empty spots along the shelf, perhaps reserved for the missing pieces of the collection? Regardless, this felt like a really important discovery to him. He made a mental note of this as he put the figure back in it’s rightful spot.

As he walked, he couldn’t help but notice that the walls were unusually barren and marked with shadows of what surely must’ve been photographs. In fact, he turned around and did a quick survey of the room, there weren’t any pictures at all! He didn’t figure Aviva to be the selfie type but surely she would at least have photographs of her Pokemon or family. Wait… can you even take pictures of Ghost Pokemon? He recalled that you needed a special camera for them since on standard film they just showed up as balls of gas. Still though, the lack of evidence for any human connection was worrying to him and just… really sad.

Now nearly complete with his sleath tour of Aviva’s flat, he came across a short table just before the hallway. The table gave off the impression of being a sort of “catch all” storage area since various knick-knacks were scattered across it. Some more candles, a few extra Alcreamies (duplicates no doubt,) a neat stack of books and- hold on a moment! An excited, almost crazed look, appeared on Gordie’s face as he grabbed the object in question. Without hesitation he examined it, tapped it, and gave it a gentle shake. His grin widened as his gut instinct held true - it IS a geode! He took another look at the table and, much to his delight, found several more just sitting there. He grabbed a couple more and continued to grin wildly. But, how? Why weren’t any of them cracked open? Wait, did she even know what she had?

“Oh. Did you want one?”

Gordie nearly jumped out of his skin as Aviva’s sudden question took him by total and complete surprise. It would appear that, in his state of extreme enthusiasm, he didn’t notice that Aviva had finished cleaning up the kitchen. Well, no matter! It was actually perfect that she was here because now he could ask her outright, “Do you know what these are?!”

Aviva was taken aback by the intensity of Mack’s voice. Was there something wrong here? Did she make some sort of mistake? She was suddenly put on the spot here and began to worry about what she should say. “Um… Geodes?” she answered in a confused, unsure tone.

“No! They’re geodes! I- wait,” Gordie was so lost in his own excitement that he didn’t fully register what Aviva had said, “Uh, yes, they’re geodes.” Realizing that he got a little carried away there, he felt his cheeks redden a bit and muttered, “Sorry about that.” Gordie cleared his throat and bashfully looked away, placing the geode back on the small table. “A-at any rate,” he said as he tried to regain his composure, “If you don’t mind me asking, where did you get all of these?”

“Unova. They were imported from out in the midwest,” Aviva answered flatly as she approached the table.

Oh of course! While here in Galar they had their fair share of wonderful ores and minerals, they didn’t compare to the perfect conditions for geodes out across the pond. Not that the stones in Galar were anything to sneeze at, there’s a reason why the cave system out on route 3 is a popular excavation area, but the very idea of living someplace where you can just go out and find a geode by a stream was absolutely incredible to him. This still left him with a very important question. “Why aren’t these opened?” he asked, hoping that Aviva would actually give him a decent response to this query.

“Hmm,” Aviva mused as she picked up one of the geodes. A sad, despondent look washed over her face as she began to recollect her reasoning for keeping these. Now lost in her own memories and away from the rest of the world, she quietly spoke, “I used to go to this museum once a year or so with the rest of my advanced placement class. Because my class was special or whatever, they would give us each a geode to crack and take home... I assume they charged us for all this because we always had to bring checks from our parents.”

Gordie let out a brief laugh but immediately fell quiet again, allowing Aviva as much time and space as needed to get out what she wanted to say.

“Anyway…” Aviva continued, eyeing the geode more carefully, “For a lot of kids it was the most exciting part of the trip so things always got really chaotic near the end. They would huddle around the guy cutting the rocks and plead endlessly for their turn. ‘Me, me, me!’” Aviva said in an exaggerated, high-pitched tone. “Ugh,” she rolled her eyes and returned to her normal tone, “But I can’t deny the results. They all got to go home; two halves of a geode richer and one education made all the more questionable.”

“And what about you?” Gordie asked, his voice low and gentle.

“Me? Well I uh… didn’t. At first the kids would elbow me out of the herd and force me away from all the action. Then they kept teasing me about it and turned the whole thing into a game. Soon I got too nervous to join the crowd and eventually I just… stopped trying all together. I kept telling myself that next year I would get better with people, next year I would find my voice, but next year never came.” Aviva set the geode down along with the rest of them, dozens of little reminders of a promise she had never kept to herself. Her mind was too far gone in the past to really notice that she was over-sharing in the present. Even so, she took a deep breath and muttered, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to dump all of that on you. Take the geodes if you want them.”

“Aw, I don’t want them, Aviva,” Gordie said as he waved his hand, immediately dismissing the idea. “But I gotta ask, why didn’t you break them yourself? You can easily take a hammer to them or heck, even ask someone at the hardware store to do it for you.”

Aviva scoffed. “I can barely manage a greeting and you want me to do a whole request? Besides, doing it myself would probably shatter it. I know I would mess it up somehow. It’s fine. I like them as they are…” It was clear that Aviva was quickly retreating back into her shell, the feelings of her past and current inadequacies were proving to be too raw for her to handle.

“Ah well that’s a right shame,” Gordie piped up, hoping to steer Aviva away from those self-deprecating thoughts, “I bet these are gorgeous inside. You know, you could easily get these to open up if you knew someone with experience and an iron pipe cutter. And hey! Wouldn’t you guess it? I happen to know a fella with both of those qualifications.”

“Huh?” Aviva blinked and stared at Mack with a confused expression. Finding a person to do it for her wasn’t exactly the problem here - it was just about working up the nerve to talk to them! The idea of another stranger entering her home didn’t sit well with her at all. She immediately shook her head and stated, “No thank you.”

“I can promise you he’s very good! And very smart and very handsome and oh so modest - really, it’s his best quality.”

“No, Mack,” she said, her voice a lot more stern. Hadn’t she inconvenienced him enough? And now he wanted to get another person involved? No. Absolutely not.

“Aww, why not?” Gordie asked, trying his best to hide his cheeky grin.

“Because I can’t talk to people.”

“You’re talking to me just fine.”

“Barely.”

“And that’s more than enough to get the expert over!”

“It’s not.”

“Just bloody ask him, Aviva!”

“I CAN’T. What am I supposed to do? Just ask him to come over?”

“Yes! Great! Thank you for the invite, I’ll be by around 7 to cut those geodes for you.”

“I- ... what?” Aviva could feel her own brain short-circuiting from the exchange she just had. It took a few seconds for her to fully comprehend the world-shattering fact that she had been played like a damn Kricketune. She furrowed her brow and glowered over at Mack who was staring at her with the cockiest grin she had seen in her life.

“So, how’s that sound?” Gordie asked, his smile giving way to an incredibly smug tone.

“Get out.”

“What!?”

* * *

Gordie patiently waited by the hall as Aviva gathered the rest of her things. He stepped aside to let her through as she opened the door, revealing a large wooden staircase descending into her bookstore. “Ohhh,” Gordie murmured curiously as he slowly trailed behind her. Aviva rushed over to the end of the stairs and began switching on the various lights.

With the lights on, Gordie could see the full extent of the shop and just how neat and pristine everything was. He had the impression that the shop would be this old, dusty hole in the wall but that couldn’t be further from the truth. As much as he really wanted to take his sweet time exploring the shop, he knew he needed to head out and get changed proper.

Unfortunately this just resulted in him awkwardly waiting by the exit as Aviva continued to literally set up shop. It seemed that she was now in full retail mode as she hustled to and fro, adjusting displays and putting away some last minute things. He certainly didn’t want to interrupt her flow but at the same time he didn’t just want to keep standing around for the duration of the work day. “Ahem,” he said as he cleared his throat loudly.

This was enough to snap Aviva out of her work trance. Slightly embarrassed by this, she pursed her lips and sheepishly looked over at Mack. “Sorry,” she muttered, still avoiding eye contact.

Gordie smiled and shook his head, “No no it’s fine! I’m not gonna keep you from your work any longer. I just uh, wanted to thank you. For everything.”

“Everything?” Aviva raised an eyebrow, “You mean for giving you a near concussion?”

Gordie let out a small laugh. “No, for taking me in from the cold, for giving me a meal, and for keeping me company. It was all really kind of you and I can’t thank you enough.”

Uh-oh. This was bad. Aviva could feel the blush on her cheeks threatening to break her apathetic composure. No no, he didn’t mean all of that. He was just too nice and polite to blame her for all of her mistakes. All of this was just pity, pure and simple. Regardless, it was nice to hear someone thanking her like that. Pity or not. What is it that humans were supposed to do after being thanked? Oh. Right. “You’re welcome,” she said.

A self-satisfied grin made its way onto Gordie’s face. “So, still cool with me swinging by around 7?”

Aviva nervously glanced around as her mind raced for any sort of excuse. Arceus knows she did technically have plans tonight. She was going to do what she always did; work, order food, watch TV, work a bit more, maybe read, go over the work for the next day, and then sleep. Honestly she was booked solid! And yet, despite the myriad of excuses that ran through her mind, she just couldn’t commit to saying no to Mack. Well, he was probably going to cancel on her anyway. That was a thing that has happened before and will no doubt happen again. Feeling a little relieved (and a little sad) at this revelation, Aviva nodded and responded, “Yeah, that’s fine.”

While Gordie remained unconvinced of her enthusiasm over this plan, he was happy nonetheless. It was progress. Not by much but once again, it was progress. “Great! Hey, I’ll bring by some of the stuff from my own collection too. Oh! I got this great piece of olivine from Alola the other day! It could use a bit of a clean but otherwise it’s downright beautiful. See, olivine is a pretty common mineral and tends to occur in igneous rocks so it stands to reason that Alola is a great spot to find it. Typically it’s exported and used for peridot, afterall that’s the Kalosian word for ‘olivine,’ but it’s raw form is just so-” Gordie had to pause himself as he could easily see a 20 minute spiel fastly encroaching. He could already hear the voices of his trainers chiding him for yet another incredibly long rock filibuster.

“Sorry about that,” he chuckled anxiously, rubbing the back of his neck as part of his nervous tick. No doubt he was already boring Aviva to tears. He bit back his feelings of embarrassment and looked over at Aviva only to find that she didn’t look bored at all. In fact, she had set the books she was holding down and was giving him her full, undivided attention. Was she… actually interested in all of this?

“Sorry about what?” she asked, wondering if she did something to make him stop in the middle of his sentence. It seemed that Mack didn’t expect her to answer given how he quickly turned his attention back to her and, against her best efforts, finally made eye contact with her.

“Ah…” For some reason Gordie could feel an immense blush heating up his face. While the contact was brief and Aviva immediately looked away, it was still more than enough to get his heart pounding. This was confounding to him. Having this sort of interaction wasn’t something new to him. He does this sort of song and dance with numerous trainers. He has a fan club for a reason! So why would something as insignificant, as simple, and as… as BASIC as eye contact cause him to react this way? Maybe it’s because… no one has bothered to really try to connect with him? The real him? The him that wasn’t just his status, that was far more than a great trainer, and that really wanted someone to listen to him prattle on about rocks? Oh, no no. He really, REALLY didn’t want to begin unpacking any of that. He looked over at Aviva and could tell she was having her own sort of brain emergency.

And boy was that ever true! Aviva’s mind raced a mile a minute as she tried to regain what little composure she had. Even though the contact lasted less than a minute, it was more than enough for her mind to take a mental snapshot of that image and keep replaying it in her mind over and over and over and over again like some sort of bizarre torture. For once the lenses of his glasses weren’t obscuring her view. Oh no no no - she got the full brunt of his kind, baby blue eyes that seemed to radiate with such genuine care and enthusiasm. She didn’t even know people could DO that. Oh Arceus, it was too much. Too bright, too close, and too much. All she wanted to do was retreat back into the shadows.

Hoping to save them both from some sort of catastrophic mental meltdown, Gordie cleared his throat and tried to continue on as nonchalantly as possible, “A-anyways. Sooo… I’ll see you around 7 then, yeah?”

Aviva stood with the poise and rigidity that would put the finest sculpture to shame. Despite this, she managed to nod her head and eke out a quiet, “Sounds good.”

Gordie returned the nod and promptly headed for the exit. As he held out the door to take his leave, he looked over his shoulder to see that Aviva was still standing there. Not wanting to end this on an awkward, sour note, he smiled and called out to her, “I’ll see you later, Aviva!”

“S… See you later, Mack,” Aviva said in a tone just a touch above a whisper. Even with the panic-induced nightmare that her brain was right now, she felt an odd warmth in her heart at even the idea of someone wanting to meet up with her later. She quietly watched as Mack made his way out the door and back out onto the street.

Just as she was sure he was gone, he turned around briefly and waved goodbye at her. A small chuckle escaped her lips as for the first time in who knows how long, she brought up her hand and waved back. Maybe he would actually come back after all...


	3. The One Where They Go About Their Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now keen on meeting Aviva again, Gordie turns to an old friend for some words of encouragement. A crowd of fans, a familiar gym leader, and a boisterous cafe owner all take their shot at Gordie's resolve. But are any of them truly effective in changing his mind?

There was no end to the wonders a good shower could do.

After a nice long shower, a quick wardrobe change, and some much needed hair-styling, Gordie finally felt like himself. Or, at least, some version of himself. He couldn’t help but ponder about his identity as he did the finishing touches to his look. Sure, this was the version of himself that he was most comfortable presenting, afterall it took years and years to refine both his aesthetic and quote unquote “branding.” It was unmistakable that the person in the mirror was one of Galar’s premiere trainers, the rock-hard crusher, and Chirchester’s favorite son; Gordie. But beyond all of that… what else was he?

Well for starters, he was running late. Gordie decided to reschedule this existential crisis for another day after he took a quick glance at his clock and realized he only had an hour to get to the restaurant. Granted Bob’s Your Uncle was only a 20 minute walk from his home but he was bound to walk into obstacles.

He walked into one of said obstacles no less than 5 minutes from the moment he stepped into the main street.

“Aaaa Gordie!” screeched an enthusiastic fangirl. The rest of her entourage whipped their heads around and immediately spotted the local celebrity. Within seconds they surrounded him, turning a simple walk into a mad frenzy of requests for autographs, selfies, and- a party invite? No no sorry, ladies, he was busy today. “Awww,” the girls audibly voiced their disappointment.

Gordie let out a small laugh as he continued to sign autographs. “I’m sorry but hey, maybe have an extra good time just for me?” He topped off this request with his signature wink and grin. This worked instantaneous and made the group swoon over him all the more. See, this to Gordie felt natural. He had fully mastered this game and knew just what his fans wanted to hear. Granted, it felt a bit cold and impersonal to call it a game but… what else was it then?

At long last, the final fan of the group approached Gordie and handed him one of the Circhester postcards sold at the station. Ohh, an out-of-towner. He’d be sure to make this extra special for her. “So, who is the lovely person I have the honor of signing this for?” he asked with his most crowd-pleasing smile.

The girl lit up with joy and was absolutely beside herself. She let out a shy giggle and said with the utmost glee, “It’s Pearl!”

“Ahh, Pearl,” Gordie repeated, knowing full well how much his fans loved hearing him say their name. Like clockwork, she blushed and giggled once more. “Beautiful name, luv,” he said as tried to plan out the custom message for her. “As precious as the gem you’re named after, huh?” Before the elated girl could respond, Gordie quickly interjected, “Well… Not really a precious gem, just for the sake of clarity here. In fact, they’re the only gem material formed and found within living creatures... Actually, now that I think about it!” Gordie shifted his stance and began to tap on his chin with the marker, ”The pearls from a Clamperl aren’t really considered true “natural” pearls either since they hold special, psychic attributes. Now the pearl from a Shellder on the other hand!”

“Oh, it’s not ‘Pearl’ it’s ‘Purrl’” the girl interrupted.

This threw Gordie off his groove and caused him to stop immediately. “...Huh?”

“Purrl! It’s not spelled P-E-A-R-L like the stone but P-U-R-R-L. It has ‘purr’ in it since it sounds way cuter, like a Skitty. Don’t you think?” the girl asked, her face full of glee and expecting yet another charming compliment from him.

“Ah,” was all Gordie could manage to say at first. She… wasn’t listening to any of that at all was she? Right. Despite the disappointment quickly setting in, he masked all of that under his usual “cool guy” facade. “Oh absolutely. A cute name for a cute fan right?” he said with a wink. Of course, this worked and allowed Gordie the time to sign her postcard while she was too busy squealing with delight.

With his fans now satisfied and his public image held true, Gordie was finally able to free himself from this group of fans. He would walk into another group in less than 10 minutes.

* * *

The free bread baskets at Bob’s Your Uncle were often referred to as “stand-up” baskets. It wasn’t a great name but it’s more than earned its reputation. The reason for this being that they were the primary meal had by those who were stood-up by would be dates. Milo, while not on a date or anything, now felt he truly understood the saying as he looked into the basket and saw that he had eaten the last bit of garlic bread. Slightly crestfallen by this, he took a quick glance at his watch and sighed. Just as he was considering ordering anyway, he felt the table shift and looked up to see Gordie trying his best to slide in as smoothly and quickly as possible - as if being sneaky about this would make Milo not notice just how late he was.

“Heyyy! Fancy seeing you here,” Gordie said with a nervous laugh as he tried to gather himself.

Milo crossed his arms and gave him a knowing look.

Not needing to hear anything from Milo, Gordie let out an exhausted sigh and nodded. “Yeah. I know. I’m really sorry about that.”

Unable to stay angry for long (or at all really) Milo soon grinned and replied, “It’s fine! I was just getting a bit worried.” Milo watched as Gordie peered into the bread basket and found that there were none left. “Ah sorry, mate. Got a bit hungry while I was waiting. I probably should’ve asked them for another,“ he said as he let out a small embarrassed laugh.

Gordie held up his hand and shook his head. “It’s all good! Honestly, I can’t really blame you. I’ll be sure to ask for some more once they take our actual orders,” he flashed Milo a reassuring smile as he grabbed his menu and looked over today’s specials.

Milo raised his eyebrows in slight surprise.

Gordie caught sight of this and asked, “Huh? What is it?”

“Oh, nothing really,” Milo mused, “I just didn’t expect you to be in such a good mood today. Not that it’s a bad thing! Can’t tell you how happy and relieved it makes me.”

“Why wouldn’t I be in a good mood?” Gordie questioned as he peered over his menu.

Milo shrugged. “Ahh well. With everything and all that happened yesterday, I thought you would come in with a downright stroppy attitude. I know how much you care about your image and I felt absolutely awful about the state of your mood yesterday. Especially about your uh…” Milo paused for a bit as he searched carefully for how to word what he wanted to say. He knew Gordie could be a touch sensitive about his appearance on a good day, he couldn’t imagine how much more sensitive he was about an aspect of it he kept secret. That being said, he was a supportive friend darn it! He needed to let Gordie know at every possible moment that he was on his side. With this renewed sense of purpose in mind, Milo continued, “I just want you to know that I don’t care in the slightest that you wear glasses. I mean, I do care because now I’ll be more careful, but I accept that part of you and I-”

“Woah woah, slow down there, mate,” Gordie held out his palm to Milo, effectively stopping the farmhand from continuing his overwhelmingly supportive spiel. “Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate the sentiment here but it’s not as if I came out with some life-altering news. It’s just glasses, Milo,” Gordie said with a slight chuckle as he returned to looking over the menu.

Milo sat there dumbfounded, mouth slightly agape. This was a complete 180 from the terrible state Gordie was in when he first stepped out with his glasses. Gordie was in a downright awful mood and spent the rest of the day pouting like an angry teenager. Heck, Milo thought he gave Gordie a full-on identity crisis with the way he was acting! And now he was just fine with it? He knew something was up. “Gordie uh..” Milo leaned across the table, “Are you alright? If you’re an imposter pretending to be Gordie please let me know. I still have one of his jackets but I forgot to bring it.”

“You forgot my jacket?!” Gordie exclaimed.

“Ah-hah! You ARE the real Gordie!” Milo said with a laugh.

Gordie rolled his eyes. “Oh come off it.”

Milo laughed for a bit more before continuing, “No but seriously. I didn’t get a text back from you so I assumed you were still in a rotten mood. Did anything happen last night?”

“Hmm,” Gordie murmured as he thought about this. Yes, in fact SO MUCH happened last night but it felt like way too much to explain. “I’ll tell you just as soon as we place our order, yeah?” Gordie said, pleased to see an agreeable nod from Milo. With the waitress in view, Gordie set down his menu and called her over. 

Now with both of their orders placed and this part of the dining room completely to themselves, Gordie returned his attention to Milo and said, “Seeing as I ordered the pot pie, I think we got ourselves just enough time for me to explain everything. It’s a long story, you still wanna hear it?”

Milo scooted his chair closer to the table and leaned, eager to listen. “Of course.”

Gordie rested both elbows on the table and clamped his hands together. “Okay, so-”

* * *

Gordie spilled the details on nearly everything that had occurred, he recounted the inciting incident, the ensuing night, and most of all; everything he could recall about Aviva. He continued on and on until, from out of the corner of his eye, he could spot the waitress fastly approaching with their meal.

Now with everything revealed and their food delivered, Gordie leaned forward as he anxiously awaited an answer from Milo. “Well, what do you make of all that, huh?” he said with a satisfied smirk.

“Mmn,” was all Milo could really say as he idly picked through his salad with his fork, not exactly keen on eating at the moment but very obviously lost in his thoughts.

This was not at all the reaction he was expecting from Milo. Gordie’s smile quickly dissipated and a deep worry soon set in his face. “What’s wrong?”

“Well,” Milo began as his lips twisted into an unsure expression, “I’m not here to tell you how to live your life, Gordie. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you! I just…”

“You just what?” Gordie gently pressed.

“I just want you to know that I’ll be by your side no matter what! I’m in no position to tell you anything an-”

“Out with it, Milo!” he said in an exasperated tone. He knew Milo was exceptionally bad at expressing any form of criticism and usually tried a gentle approach, especially when it came to those close to him. This worked well when it came to handling rookie trainers but when it came to handling heavy issues? Oh it was the absolute worst.

Milo flinched slightly at Gordie’s harsh words. “Okay, okay!” he said as he tried to find the courage to say what he felt needed to be said. Unable to find a softer way to express his thoughts, Milo simply blurted out, “I don’t think it’s right of you to lie like that!”

That absolutely came out of left field. Gordie blinked in confusion as this slightly befuddled him. As he thought about it more, it began to make sense. Milo was always a goody two-shoes so it stands to reason that ANY sort of lying was out of the question for him. All the same though, surely Milo knew there were exceptions to be had? With this in mind, Gordie shook his head and let out a small laugh. “Of course you would have an issue with lying. You couldn’t even tell your gran a simple white lie when she asked if her new haircut resembled a Wooloo’s arse.”

Milo pursed his lips and murmured, “Well, it did… But that’s besides the point!” Milo, now a bit more serious, looked up at Gordie and continued, “If Aviva is as anti-social as you’re saying she is, then it stands to reason she doesn’t trust people much, right? How do you suppose she’ll feel if she finds out the one new friend she’s made has been lying to her the entire time?”

Hm. Milo did have a point… But still, Gordie knew he had a counter. “But how else can I talk to her, Milo? She can’t even talk to an employee at a hardware store and you want her to suddenly talk to the biggest celebrity in the city?”

Milo couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “And the biggest ego to match no less.”

Gordie shot a small glare at Milo. “Look, the point is, this is the only way I can talk to her.”

“But it’s not!” Milo interjected, “Sure it’ll be awkward and maybe even a bit messy at first, but I’m sure once you explain it all to her she’ll be more than understanding! At this stage you can even claim that your head was still a little loopy from your fall. See, I can allow a small lie like that!”

“Oh, you’re _allowing_ me now, is that it?”

Milo let out an exhausted sigh. “Gordie, you know that’s not what I me-”

Gordie interrupted with a dismissive scoff. “Of course you wouldn’t understand.”

“And what do you mean by that, mate?”

“Oh please,” Gordie rolled his eyes as he leaned back into his chair and crossed his arms, “Sure, you’re also a huge celebrity but no one in Turffield sees you as such. They don’t look at you and see one of Galar’s top trainers. No, they all still see you as the nice farm boy that lives down the road! You’re free to walk around and do as you please without hoards upon hoards of fans bombarding you, you don’t have to hyper-fixate on your appearance in fear of the press catching you on a bad day, and you don’t have your relationship with your mum all laid out for the public to see.”

Milo’s usual smile tinged with just the smallest bit of frustration and annoyance. While Gordie did have a good point about the differences between growing up in a small farming community versus growing up in a crowded urban populace, he knew that a lot of the things he was complaining about were brought on through his own actions. If Gordie had truly hated being surrounded by fans, he wouldn’t have created a persona that invited this exact response. Kabu, Opal, and Allister were all allowed this separation of life and career because they have made it apparent to the public that this is what they wanted and their personas reflected as such. This felt like victim-blaming to Milo but heck if it wasn’t true. Even Melony knew to keep the public at a distance and Circhester respected her space (for the most part.) It was Gordie that fanned the flames of his fanbase’s rabid devotion to him.

He knew all of this and he knew could correct Gordie on several of these fronts but… he just didn’t have it in him. Milo, feeling the fight completely drained from him, acquiesced, “You’re right, Gordie. I’m sorry.” As he said so, he could hear the voice of Nessa in his head berating him for being such a doormat and enabling the worst in others yet again.

_“Sometimes you have to hurt someone’s feelings in order to make them do what’s right. It’s not pleasant and no one likes arguing with their loved ones, but sometimes you gotta nip the bad in order for the good to grow. Isn’t that right, Milo?”_ Nessa’s voice echoed. As always, she was right. And Milo knew this. Maybe… Maybe he could tough it out? Milo straightened his back, took a deep breath and… shoved a large portion of salad into his mouth.

Maybe another day…

This didn’t feel like any sort of victory to Gordie, not in the least bit. He could tell from the downtrodden look on Milo’s face that he clearly had more to say. Well, no matter. He was keen on doing what he wanted to do and if Milo really had SUCH a problem with it he would tell him… right? Right. Not wanting to think on the strain this was bound to put on their friendship, Gordie also began digging into his meal.

* * *

Both men ate in uncomfortable silence for quite some time as neither one of them knew how to pick up the conversation again. Gordie, once again not being the type to stand around and do nothing, was the first to speak, “So, you brought my jacket right?”

Milo, a bit startled by the sudden break in the silence, looked up at Gordie and nodded. He quickly wiped his mouth with his napkin before responding, “Y-yeah, I did. Did you bring back my stuff too?”

“Yeeeah about that,” Gordie began in an uncertain tone - he didn’t think today’s topic would come back around so soon. He took a small drink before clearing his throat and continuing, “Mind if I borrow that cardigan for a bit longer? I was keen to buy my own but I don’t think I’ll have the time to do it today before uh…”

“Before seeing Aviva again,” Milo finished.

“Right.” Damn. Gordie had really hoped that he could somehow segway his request away from Aviva. He had cooked up a whole bit about how he secretly always liked the cardigan and wanted to keep it for a while because it was SO stylish... but he supposed that plan was already doomed from the start. No one would have believed him anyway. It really was a tacky looking thing.

Milo let out a small, contemplative sigh. He found it funny how Gordie had whined and cried so much about the supposed “ugliness” of the cardigan (it was a fine looking thing, really!) and yet here he was treating it like his own glass slipper. Granted he didn’t feel right about any of this but it was still nice to see Gordie willing to wear something he hated so much just for the chance to talk to someone. From that angle, maybe Milo could be okay with this after all.

With this new perspective in mind, Milo’s usual smile found its rightful place back on his face. “Oh, you liked it that much huh?” he said in a playful, teasing tone.

Gordie’s demeanour instantly brightened up as soon as he saw Milo had returned to his usual, upbeat self. He let out a small chuckle and replied, “Yeah, mate, it gets out all of those hard water stains like a dream.”

“Hey! My gran knitted that cardigan!” Milo exclaimed with a laugh.

“Ah well, your gran may have the head of a Wooloo’s arse but she has the brain of a cleaning genius!” Gordie’s boisterous laugh was soon halted by an abrupt napkin to the face. He quickly pulled the napkin off and met eyes with Milo.

“...Pfft!” Milo snickered, unable to keep his own laughter buried for long. Both men soon began laughing, the tension of the air quickly dissipating and being replaced with the natural closeness and familiarity the two of them shared.

* * *

With their meal done and the balance between the two of them restored, Milo and Gordie began to gather their things and start to go their separate ways for the evening. While Gordie had offered to walk Milo to the station, both of them knew that doing so was a bit of a nightmare scenario. The two of them walking together always brought on an absurd number of onlookers and they would soon be bombarded by the press and their fans. The press absolutely loved seeing gym leaders hanging out with one another as a true show of the unique brand of comradery Galar had. Their fans also loved seeing them together but not exactly for the same reasons… Either way, it was bound to take far too long and cause Milo to miss his train.

It was with this in mind that Milo would exit the restaurant first and Gordie would follow a few minutes after. As Milo swung his knapsack over his shoulder, he couldn’t help but feel like now was the time to get out that nagging question floating around the inside of his head. He had spent the whole time trying to figure out what exactly he wanted to say and only now had he felt it come together. “Hey, mind if I ask you something before I go?” he asked as Gordie pushed his chair in.

“Huh?” Gordie pocketed his phone and looked at Milo. “Yeah sure, shoot.”

“Why do you want to see Aviva?” Milo questioned, taking the utmost care in making sure that his voice lacked any accusatory tones.

Gordie raised an eyebrow. “Milo-”

Milo raised up his hands defensively. “Don’t worry, I’m not getting into it. I just want to know; why her specifically? I mean, with your new disguise you could easily go to any part of Circhester and talk with the people there like normal. I know you’ve always wanted to try out the Battle Cafe.”

Huh. Gordie furrowed his brow as he tried to think on this for a bit. True, there were loads of things he had always wanted to do as a civilian. He could go for an extended soak in the hero’s bath, he could try out Hotel Ionia’s famous breakfast buffet, and he could even attend some of the underground battles that were held at the edge of town. So, in light of all of these exciting places to see and things to do, why did he want to spend his time at a quiet little bookstore? Even he wasn’t entirely sure. All he knew was one simple fact. “She liked listening to me talk about rocks,” he said in deep contemplation.

Gordie didn’t actually expect to say that outloud and immediately felt embarrassed by doing so. With his face quickly heating up, he took a sharp glance at Milo who only responded with a kind, understanding smile.

“Thanks, mate. That’s all I needed to know,” Milo said as he nodded at Gordie and turned around to make his way out of the restaurant. He paused briefly to glance over his shoulder and said, “I hope it all goes well for you, Gordie!”

“Yeah… me too,” Gordie thought as he stood there, waving bye to his best friend until he was finally out of sight.

* * *

_“The time is Six… Twenty-Five… PM,”_ echoed the mechanical voice of Gordie’s Rotom phone.

“Uggh” Gordie rolled his eyes and cursed at himself for being so bad with time as he hastily shoved the phone back into his pocket. Granted the 10 or so fans that accosted him on his trip back from the restaurant didn’t help, but he honestly could’ve spent a little less time deciding which parts of his collection to bring and primping his “undercover” look.

At this point in his life, Gordie had amassed an impressive collection of gemstones and minerals. While he tended to reserve gemstones for his jewelry and bits of his attire, it was the minerals that he took the utmost pride and care of. A wide array of samples from all across various regions rested on long glass shelves. With a large mirror as their backdrop and thin strips of bright lights set against the edges, the cases seemed to exude an almost ethereal glow. He had shown off this collection numerous times but seldom did he feel it got the respect it truly deserved. He had even attempted to post about it on social media but it got considerably less likes and views than even the most basic video starring his Shuckle. As he carefully selected some samples to bring, he couldn’t help but wonder what Aviva’s reaction would be to his collection. _“She would probably panic about being in someone else’s house and try to leave,”_ he thought with a slight laugh as he carefully closed the camera bag he had fashioned into a rock-carrying case.

As easy as it was for him to pick out which rocks to bring, he had a considerably harder time picking out an outfit.

He had decided to wear the same cardigan he wore last night. However, this time he paired it with a nice pair of brown pants and a scarf adorned with a pattern reminiscent of a Stonjourner. He also opted to wear the classier pair of glasses he usually kept at home as opposed to the pair he kept around for emergencies. As tempted as he was to style his hair, he felt it best to keep it tied back in a loose ponytail. True, today’s look wasn’t much different from last night’s assemble but he still felt it was a marked improvement. He didn’t look cool or stylish but he looked… smart. And he felt that was something Aviva would like better. Not that he was about to let one person dictate his style or anything! It was just as a favor to her, that’s all.

Fortunately for him, the trip to the main street took far less time than he had anticipated so he was in the clear. A smile formed on Gordie’s face as he spotted the familiar signpost of Chandelure’s Chapters handing down from it’s rightful spot. As nice and pleasant as this surprise was, it didn’t come close to the bigger surprise sitting right next door.

It was the Battle Cafe! How did he not see this until now? As he thought about it, he soon realized that it stood in the opposite direction of his home. Of course he didn’t spot it when he left. Well, now that he knew it was here, it wouldn’t hurt to peak inside right?

While he was fairly confident in the effectiveness of his disguise, he still felt he had to enter the cafe with some degree of caution so as to not give the whole thing away. Once inside, he took a small pause and anticipated everyone’s reaction. Save for a few guests, most people didn’t even bother to look up from their tables. Those that did stared at Gordie with an amicable degree of disinterest before returning to their meals. Now more sure of his cover-up, he finally made his way to the line and took a proper look at the menu.

Once it was his turn, he approached the cashier and was met with an zealous, “Hello there! What can I get for ya, lad?” The employee, clad in a grey gingham plaid shirt, tossed a small towel over his shoulder and grinned enthusiastically at Gordie.

Gordie responded in kind with his own grin. “Hello! I was wondering if I could get two hot cocoas, a box of Lumiose Galettes, and uh…” His eyes traced over the menu to see if anything else stood out to him. Suddenly, he spotted something of great interest and continued, “And one Alcreamie Surprise please!”

“Ah…” The employee flashed Gordie a mischievous smirk. “First time here, huh? Lemme guess, did the missus send you out?”

A look of utter shock and confusion made its way onto Gordie’s face. “Missus? Not exactly but I uh...”

The employee soon let out a laugh and waved his hand dismissively. “Don’t worry, I’m just teasing ya, mate! Y’see, we only stock a certain amount of Alcreamie Surprises a day. We gotta do that otherwise every collector this side of Galar would be hounding us nonstop! It also helps keep them rare, supply ‘n demand and all that.” The employee soon leaned over and said in a hushed tone, “Honestly, it all don't make a lick of sense to me but my son insisted on it.”

“Ohhh I see,” Gordie replied with an understanding nod. Well that made sense to Gordie. Except… Hold on! If demand is that crazy, how the hell is someone like Aviva able to get one? More importantly, how was she able to accumulate so many if she can’t even go to a hardware store? As Gordie was about to ask, he heard a voice chime out from the kitchen.

“Hey, pops, we have one left!” A younger man soon exited the kitchen with a Milcery happily trailing behind him. The Milcery held on its head a small pink box.

“Oh?” questioned the older man as he crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow.

“Ms. Walsh phoned an hour ago saying she’s not gonna pick up her order today. Says she’s on some new diet, something about eating nothing but Combee honey,” his son said with a shrug before returning back to the kitchen.

“Combee honey? The woman’s mental!” exclaimed the older man as he gently took the box from the Milcery. “No matter. Nicely done you lot!” he said with an enthusiastic laugh as he ruffled the viscous material on Milcery’s head. The Milcery responded with a happy little giggle as it took its spot back up on the counter. “Well well,” the man said as he returned his attention to Gordie, “Looks like another one of Ms. Walsh’s bizarre diets worked out in your favor, lad!”

“Looks like her loss is my gain” Gordie said, unable to hide his own enthusiastic smile.

“Hah! She wishes it was her loss. But who knows? Maybe it will be if her new diet works out for her!” the man said, laughing up a storm as he set about grabbing the Lumiose Galettes.

In no time at all, the employee rung up Gordie’s order and handed him his drinks and a small paper bag. As Gordie set one of the drinks down to grab some extra napkins, the employee spoke, “Say, since you’re new here and all, do you know about our Alcreamie Exchange?”

“Alcreamie Exchange?” questioned Gordie as he shoved the napkins into his bag.

“Oh-hoh~! Well, it’s an event my own husband runs. Y’see, about once a month or so we invite fans to come by and trade their Alcreamie Surprise figures for ones that they don’t have. Sort of a way to dispel the rumor that we give out nothing but duplicates... but also to keep drumming up business!” the man said with a laugh before continuing, “We hold raffles, play bingo, and overall make a whole event out of it! Even if you’re not a fan of the figures, it’s still loads of fun. I highly recommend you pop in for a bit to check it out.” As he finished, he handed Gordie a pink flyer detailing everything he had just told him and more.

Gordie quickly skimmed over the flyer before nodding. “Thanks! I’ll keep it in mind!” Gordie folded up the flyer, shoved it in his pockets, and set out for next door with both drinks in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, I know there isn't a Battle Cafe in Circhester but it's fine. It's fine.


	4. The One Where They Open Some Rocks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gordie quickly finds out that cracking open geodes is a lot easier than cracking through Aviva's tough shell. He's not willing to give up just yet though! After all, what every friendship needs is patience, understanding, and a little bit of cake.

_Chime-a-ling_ ~

A tiny Chimecho bell rang out as Gordie entered Chandelure’s Chapters. Much like he had expected, the bookstore was quiet and nearly empty. However, he didn’t even step one foot into the store before being confronted with the cold and icy stare of a Froslass.

“Froslass Fros Fros,” spoke the Froslass in a haughty tone, seeming almost affronted at Gordie’s very presence.

The last thing Gordie had been prepared to run into was an Ice Pokemon. And not just any Ice Pokemon noooo - it had to be a Froslass. Growing up as the son of a renowned Ice-type Pokemon gym leader meant that he had the great fortune (or misfortune depending on the day) of seeing a wide array of Ice Pokemon. While most were relatively okay, it was always Froslasses that were tricky. They all had this uppity air of arrogance and held true to the belief that they were better than everyone out in the field. It was no wonder his mother never kept one on her team. It was this knowledge in mind that made seeing one in Aviva’s bookshop all the more surprising.

Gordie eyed the Froslass curiously and cautiously. It was obviously trying to tell him something but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out what. “I’m sorry I… I’m afraid I don’t understand?”

The Froslass let out an annoyed sigh, the type of sigh you would receive if the person regarded you as a total and complete idiot. “Froslass,” the Froslass replied curtly, pointing a dainty finger to a sign placed on the door.

Gordie turned around to face the door and noticed a placard with the shop’s hours, a flip-around sign currently set to “WE’RE OPEN,” and at last a sign that stated “No Drinks and No Foods.” Now he understood. While he didn’t want to break the rules or anything, he still felt like maybe there could be an exception made. He decided to try reasoning with the Froslass. “Okay but, I brought these for Aviva. They’re from next door. Maybe you can give them to her?”

The Froslass seemed to perk up at the mention of Aviva’s name. Ah, so it WAS her Pokemon. The Froslass’ eyes narrowed as she hovered close to Gordie, her body slowly whirling around him as she began to inspect him for anything she deemed suspicious. Despite not finding anything, the Froslass continued to stare distrustingly at Gordie. This rigid stalemate quickly ended as a voice called out, “Cha-Chand~!”

From up above the ceiling descended Orion, the Chandelure Gordie had met the previous night. “Oh! Hello again, Orion,” Gordie said, sadly unable to pet the Pokemon but smiling widely nonetheless. Much to his relief the Chandelure seemed overjoyed to see him, bobbing its arms up and down excitedly and gently swaying side-to-side. The Chandelure turned to look over at Froslass and the two Pokemon began to exchange words before coming to some sort of agreement.

The Froslass let out an indignant huff. It seems that whatever Orion told her seemed to work as she took both drinks from Gordie’s hands and floated away to the back of the shop.

Gordie let out a small laugh as he adjusted his bags. He turned to Orion and said, “Thanks, mate, I owe ya one.” Now with his hands free, he gently placed his palm on the cool glass of Orion’s face. The Chandelure responded with a happy, chirping sound before making its way back up to the ceiling.

Now that he was finally in the shop, Gordie decided it was time to take that tour he’d been wanting to do since this morning. At first, it seemed like the shop was much like any other bookstore Gordie had set foot in. Not that he went to a lot of bookstores mind you, but he assumed they were all the same deal. That said, there was a key difference in this shop that seemed to set it apart from the others he had seen. While it’s shelves and furniture were modern, he could tell from the crown molding and stone pillars that this store had kept true to the original design of the area. The old Circhesterian architecture did wonders for the place and added an extra level of class. It was honestly really nice to see a piece of the town’s history preserved so nicely like this.

As he continued to make his way down the aisles, he spotted a blur of yellow out from the corner of his eye. He raised an eyebrow and slowly followed the direction it ran in, only to see it dodge out of sight yet again. Now even more curious, Gordie picked up the speed ever so slightly. He wasn’t about to run or anything but he figured something along the lines of a brisk walk would be acceptable. Whatever he was chasing was obviously playing with him since it could’ve easily outrun him by this point. This little game of cat and mouse (maybe?) soon ended when Gordie turned the corner and nearly ran into the large cloud of some ghostly apparition.

“Cuursssooo,” hummed the Cursola as it slowly turned it’s broad body and gazed over at Gordie. In the Pokemon’s hands (or rather, whatever counted as its corporeal appendages) were a stack of books. The Cursola calmly brought a piece of dead coral to it’s lips before letting out a low and quiet, “Shhh.” Now content with noise level, the Cursola returned to restocking the shelves with the books in hand. Gordie had to admit, it was a bit creepy but no doubt effective at keeping the place quiet.

Still though, it was embarrassing to be shushed at his age. He took that as his cue to end his self-guided tour and head towards wherever Aviva was. It took him no time at all to reach the left side of the store, opposite of where the staircase leading to her flat stood, and spot the long, ornate counter that functioned as check-out. Much to his surprise however, no one was there! Puzzled by this, Gordie approached the counter to see if maybe there was a bell or some sort of way to let Aviva know that he had arrived. Upon reaching the counter, he couldn’t find a bell or a call button. What he did find was an empty manilla folder and a strange, shuffling sound emanating from behind the counter. Not one to let his curiosity go unsated Gordie peered over the counter and finally found Aviva, desperately trying to organize some fallen pieces of paper into one neat stack. Despite the small mess she was in, he couldn’t help the smile that came onto his face upon seeing Aviva.

That said, the last thing she needed was to be seen in such a state. Gordie, hoping to not startle Aviva, cleared his throat and said in a welcoming tone, “Hello? Is anyone here?”

“Gh!” Aviva panicked slightly and nearly dropped the papers all over again. She decided for now to shove them all into one of her side drawers and organize them later. With that taken care of (for now) she immediately stood back up and tried to regain her nonchalant composure. “Yes. Hello, what can I do fo-” it took no time at all for her to notice Mack and for her brain to short-circuit on sight.

Gordie had expected such a reaction from her. He let out a small laugh and said, “What’s the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something. Wait...” He took on a hushed tone and leaned onto the counter, “Don’t tell me - you’ve seen the ghosts too? I don’t know about you or anything, but I think this place might be haunted.”

The outright cheesiness of Mack’s humor was more than enough to bring Aviva out of her stupor. She rolled her eyes as her lips tugged into a faint smile. “The only thing I’m being haunted by right now is this man with terrible jokes I thought I had finally gotten rid of.”

Gordie let out a dramatic gasp and said in mock offense, “Oh no! He sounds like a horrible, awful, charming - no doubt incredibly handsome - problem to have! Well, I’m sure it’ll sort itself out in no time.”

Arceus help her, Mack’s jokes were outright some of the worst she had ever heard. Aviva brought her hand up to her mouth in a desperate attempt to hide the giggle that came as a result. She wasn’t proud of this, quite the opposite, and hoped that he didn’t decide to continue carrying on like this. Unfortunately, this moment of light-hearted joy was soon ended when Aviva caught sight of a customer waiting behind Mack. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, her expression instantly losing any of the warmth and merriment it once held. 

“Huh?” Gordie blinked in confusion and wondered what caused this quick turnaround. His question was soon answered as he heard a low voice pipe up behind him.

“Excuse me, are you in line?” asked the older gentlemen.

“Oh, no no go right ahead, sir,” Gordie said as he stepped to the side and let the customer complete his transaction. This seemed to be the last customer for the day because once the man had left Aviva's Chandelure descended from the ceiling and began to lock the door and close the curtains. The lights dimmed softly as he could hear the soft rattle of the other Pokemon still present in the store, no doubt following their nightly routine of closing up shop.

Aviva pursed her lips and mentally cursed herself for not letting her Pokemon know about Mack’s visit. With the store beginning to close, she could feel the pressure of being alone with Mack once again weighing down on her and felt her chest tighten at the prospect of having to be social for even longer. She didn’t actually think Mack would come over again. Although some small part of her was looking forward to it… she didn’t envision a reality where that would come true! And yet here he was, bags in hand and not looking at all inconvenienced by having to see her again. Unsure of how to word all of the chaos currently ensuing in her brain, Aviva bluntly stated, “What are you doing here?”

Gordie was of course disappointed in seeing Aviva retreat into her hard shell so soon. He did manage to get a giggle out of her though and that was something! Considering the state of their conversations last night, things were already considerably going smoother. At this point he was used to Aviva’s seemingly harsh words and knew them as a means for self-defense rather than an attempt to antagonize him. It was thanks to this that he was able to take her question in stride and return it with a cheerful, “To keep my word of course!”

“Your word?” Aviva arched an eyebrow before remembering that there was a purpose to all of this. “Oh right, the geodes...” As much as she tried to tell herself that Mack was not coming over and that this was all for naught, she did bring down the geodes earlier that day during her lunch period. She wordlessly opened one of the drawers, pulled out a drawstring bag, and set about placing the rocks on her counter. “Okay, get to it,” she said in a flat tone.

Still impressed by her collection, Gordie watched in rapt enjoyment as she pulled out one after the other. Upon hearing her demand, he smiled and shook his head, “Much as I would love to, I’m afraid I can’t do it in here.”

“Huh? Why not?”

“Well,” Gordie adjusted his bags again, “Opening geodes can be a bit messy. Ignoring the fact that there’s dust and debris, some can still contain water in them. I wouldn’t want to damage your lovely counter or any of the fine wood flooring you have in here.” It seems that Gordie’s little tour around the shop served to do more than sate his curiosity. He recalled seeing a nice, carpeted section with a couch and various other seats (no doubt to function as a reading area) but he didn’t want to risk the iron pipe cutter damaging the carpet. He toyed with the idea of maybe doing this in her kitchen but he feared the tool would cause some damage to the wood flooring there as well. He mused on this for a bit before asking, “Do you have a backyard? Or maybe some sort of balcony? Anything with a tough surface would do.”

Aviva couldn’t argue with his reasoning and was strangely pleased to hear how much he respected her store. Sure, it was probably to save him from paying for any property damage but still, it felt nice to hear someone take some part of her into consideration. Upon hearing his question, she nodded and pointed to her left. “The back door leads outside to the alley. The shops in this row share it for trash so it’s all asphalt out there. Would that be safe?”

Gordie smiled and nodded, “That sounds perfect!” Now with a set plan, Aviva returned the nod and set to putting away the rest of her papers. He felt a sort of giddiness well up inside of him as Aviva scooped up the geodes back into the cloth bag and flipped up a thin section of the counter, allowing herself to leave work for the evening. As Gordie was set to follow her out the door, he noticed something was missing. “Oh! Don’t forget your drink,” he said, turning around to head back to the cash register.

“My drink?” Aviva asked, wondering if maybe Mack needed some water to open the geodes.

As Gordie searched around the counter for any of the Battle Cafe cups, he heard a snide giggle come from up above. Gordie looked over his shoulder and spotted the Froslass happily floating up above, smugly sipping the hot cocoa he had clearly brought for Aviva. He narrowed his eyes at the Froslass who in turn stuck her nose up in the air. He’d have to keep a close eye on that one, that’s for sure…

* * *

Aviva opened the door to the alley and set down a misshapen block of wood she used as a door stopper. She looked around and was relieved to find that the alley was empty.

As Gordie stepped out, he noticed that there really wasn’t an adequate place to sit down. He looked over at Aviva and said, “Do you have a foldable chair or something to sit on?”

Aviva thought about this for a bit before responding, “I have a small stool but otherwise all of my chairs are pretty heavy.”

That’ll have to do. “Why don’t you grab that while I set up here, yeah?” While the empty pallets in the alley could function as seats, he couldn’t imagine that would be at all pleasant. Not only that but he figured the splintering wood might damage Aviva’s deep purple dress and the sparkling black tights she wore to accompany it. Gordie didn’t mind not having a seat, so long as Aviva was relatively comfortable.

With an acknowledging nod, Aviva stepped back into the store while Gordie set his bags on the ground. The asphalt was slightly damp, no doubt due to the chill and dew setting in. It seemed that Circhester was due for an early Winter yet again. Thankfully the night air was still tolerable and should allow him plenty of time to finish the task at hand before freezing his knickers off. He heard Aviva approaching as he unzipped his larger bag.

Aviva set the stool down before him. “Here,” she said, standing awkwardly and awaiting the next set of instructions.

Gordie looked up at her and smiled, “Oh, it’s not for me. Why don’t you set it down by that pallet and take a seat?”

“Huh?” Aviva stood slightly dumbfounded at his suggestion. She honestly didn’t mind sitting down on the ground or crouching for the duration of this - she didn’t deserve a seat when Mack was doing all of this for her. True, the ground looked cold and wet… and it would probably stain her dress… and crouching for so long would hurt her knees…

After much consideration, she decided that maybe Mack had a point. Without another word, she placed the stool next to the pallets and took a seat.

Gordie couldn’t hide the absolutely pleased look on his face as he watched Aviva sit down. With all of the iron pipe cutter components all put together, Gordie let out a satisfied breath, “Alright!” He turned his attention to Aviva and held out his hand, “Mind handing me one of the geodes?”

Aviva nodded slowly as she pulled out a random geode from the bag and passed it to Gordie. She couldn’t help but marvel at the strange contraption Mack had brought out for her. It resembled an extra big bolt cutter only with what looked to be bicycle chains at the very end of it. She furrowed her brow in deep concentration as she tried to fully comprehend this mystery device and decipher how exactly it would cut a geode. After all, it didn’t even have a blade or anything sharp!

As he wrapped the chain around the geode, Gordie glanced at Aviva and noticed the intense look on her face. “I take it you’ve never seen one of these before?” he said with a small laugh as he fed the end of the chain through the other side of the lever, forming a complete circle around the geode.

After Aviva shook her head, he took it as his cue to start his small lesson. “Well, think of it like a nutcracker with a few extra parts. When I pull down on either one of these red levers, it tightens the chain around the geode. There’s a small locking mechanism here in the front that clicks into place whenever the next notch is loaded. The more you pull, the tighter the chain becomes. The tighter the chain becomes, the more pressure is placed around the geode. You keep doing this gradually until it finally breaks and bam! You got yourself a fully cut geode.”

“Ohhh,” Aviva nodded, still unable to take her eyes off the mechanism. She wasn’t exactly a mechanically driven person to say the least. Sure, she stocked plenty of technical manuals and various books filled with schematics but they may as well have been written in an entirely different language for all she understood of them. Because of this, she was more than grateful for the easy-to-follow explanation Mack had given her.

“You can’t just brute force a geode, especially if you want it to keep its structural integrity. It takes patience and effort, little-by-little. But the results are completely worth it,” Gordie mused quietly as he smiled warmly at Aviva, confident that this wisdom could apply beyond geodes.

Aviva slowly nodded in response, hanging on to his every word in this impromptu lesson. It seemed there was a lot more to geodes (and Mack) than she had originally thought...

Pleased as punch to see that he had Aviva’s full attention, he stood up and decided to start using the pipe cutter. As he set his foot down on the bottom lever and was about to start pressing he realized one important thing that he had foolishly overlooked; a cardigan was arguably one of the worst things to be wearing while doing this. He was far too focused on getting everything together that at no point did he consider this. All it took was one simple squeeze to feel the soft fabric straining against his arms and his back. For a moment he thought about trying it anyway but that didn't feel right. He really didn’t want to damage the cardigan Milo lent him, not after the minor argument they had. He knew what he had to do but boy was this bound to be awkward. “Hey uh,” Gordie began as he tried to find the right words, “Mind holding onto my cardigan for me?”

This seemed to snap Aviva out of her mesmerized state and looked quizzically at Mack. “What?”

“This thing requires a bit of work and I don’t want to damage the cardigan since it belongs to Milo-” Gordie suddenly stopped and paused for a bit. He slowly reversed and reapproached this sentence, “My… My-lonely old nan. Haha yep! She insists I wear it whenever I leave the house.”

More confused by his strange wording, Aviva cautiously replied, “Ooo… kay?”

“Great. Thanks.” Gordie turned around and made quick work of unbuttoning the cardigan. It was on the third button than an even worse realization hit him. He knew he grabbed a white undershirt for his outfit only… he didn’t really take a good look if it was blank. More than anything he made sure not to grab one of his gym uniforms but even that, as risky as it would be, felt like a much better alternative than to what he was wearing now. With no other recourse, Gordie took a deep breath and turned around. “Here,” he said as he handed the cardigan to Aviva.

Typically, suddenly holding onto a piece of attire belonging to someone else would cause a slight panic in Aviva and it almost did in this case. Fortunately for her, her eyes caught sight of something so absurd it immediately pulled her out of this frame of thinking and elicited an incredibly loud laugh out of her.

Gordie could do nothing but stand there and wish for death as he felt himself overcome with embarrassment. Printed on his white shirt in bold, eye-catching red was the image of a Shuckle happily enjoying a plate of curry. Truthfully he loved the design and bought it the second he saw it but, admittingly, it was an incredibly dorky look. Unable to stand it for much longer, Gordie exclaimed, “What? Something wrong with my shirt?”

Aviva shook her head as she clamped both hands over her mouth, desperately trying to hide the second wave of laughter that hit her.

Gordie continued to feign insult over this but couldn’t help the small bursts of laughter that escaped in between his own words. “Look, Aviva, it’s called ‘FASHION.’ I’m sure it’s mentioned in one of your books somewhere!”

At this, Aviva tried to steady her laughter and replied, “Oh yeah, I’m sure, dude! We stock all sorts of materials on clowns and clown-related imagery and- pffpffpfft-!” Aviva couldn’t even get through her comeback before succumbing to laughter once more.

Unable to resist any longer, Gordie joined Aviva in laughing over the absurdity of his outfit. He looked over at Aviva and stopped laughing for a moment, just to take in the sight of her fully enjoying herself. The small giggles he caught earlier were only a preview to the full extent of her laugh - now a boisterous guffaw. Her laugh wasn’t flattering to say the least; she snorted slightly in between breaths, she sounded like a loud Mudbray, and her eyes squinted in a weird manner. Really, it was one of the most beautiful things Gordie had seen.

This soft introspection was caught short by the sound of another door opening and more light flooding into the alley.

“Oi! What’s going on out here!” called out a booming voice.

Gordie and Aviva immediately stopped laughing and turned to look over in the direction of the mysterious voice. Unfortunately the light from the shop enveloped the figure in shadow, leaving both Gordie and Aviva unable to discern who the person was.

After a small moment of silence, the figure stepped out of the light and asked, “Aviva? Is that you lass?”

“Oh. Good evening, Mr. Richard,” responded Aviva in a low, embarrassed tone.

“Aviva, you know not to call me that. Mr. Richard was my father… on account of he was a Dick!” the man said in a loud, boisterous laugh. “Just call me Bernard or Bernie, sweetheart.”

Wait a minute, Gordie recognized that laugh. He took a closer look and realized that the man addressing them was the Battle Cafe employee he had talked to earlier!

Bernard turned around only to spot Gordie and came to a similar conclusion. “Oh! I recognize you, lad! I had no idea you were friends with Aviva. If I’d’ve known I would’ve given you a discount… and put it on her tab instead!” He laughed once again at his own joke.

“Friends?” Aviva questioned quietly, nervously tucking one of her white bangs behind her ear as she tried to wrap her mind around such a concept.

Before Aviva could have a chance to speak, Bernard spoke again. “Sorry about scaring you lot. I thought some Zigzagoons had gotten into my trash again. You throw out a whole cake ONE time and suddenly you’re the talk of the town.” He let out an exasperated sigh before glancing over at Gordie. “Say now, what’s this fancy looking thing?” He said as he approached the pipe cutter, “Thinking about robbing a bank? Well don’t leave old Bernie out of it! Oh,” he paused briefly before holding out his hand towards Gordie, “I’m Bernard by the way, all my friends call me Bernie, but you can call me Mr. Pink for the bank heist.”

Gordie let out a small laugh as partook in a strong, hardy handshake with Bernard. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m… Mack,” He paid extra close attention this time so as to not nearly slip up like he did earlier. With introductions out of the way Gordie returned his attention to the contraption, “Sorry to disappoint but this is just a regular pipe cutter. All we’re doing is cutting geodes.”

“Geodes eh?” Bernard bent down to take a good look at the end of the cutter, noticing the small rock wrapped in chains. “Aw well, that’s a right pity,” he let out a disappointed sigh before slapping his knees and standing straight up again. “Well, unless you happen to find gold in one of these rocks, I’ll leave you all to it!” He waved goodbye to both Mack and Aviva as he headed back to his shop. Before closing the door, he looked over at Mack and said, “Say, why don’t you pop in for a chat sometime? I’m sure you would love to know more about…” he quickly glanced over at Aviva and returned his attention to Mack, “...cake.”

Gordie nodded and replied, “Uh… sure. I happen to be pretty interested in… cake.”

Bernard returned the nod. “Well, goodnight you two!” And with that he promptly returned to his shop and closed the door. The light outside soon dimmed to its standby mode, Bernard no doubt leaving it on for their sake.

With Bernard gone, all that was left was a relatively awkward silence. Gordie glanced over at Aviva and saw that she was lost in thought. What she could be thinking of he hadn’t the slightest clue. Still though, it couldn’t have been anything too fun judging by the intense look on her face. Keen on setting the mood back to where it was, he clapped his hands and announced, “Alright then! How about we get to opening some of these bad boys, eh?”

That seemed to do the trick as Aviva immediately snapped out of her deep concentration and nodded in response. As Mack began to double-check the pipe cutter, Aviva looked down and stared at the cardigan she had neatly folded onto her lap. She wasn’t holding it or anything, but even so she could feel just how _warm_ it was. Truthfully, she always ran extremely cold and it had been so long since she had been this close with anybody. She had forgotten that human beings can be this warm naturally. This slight meditation was quickly interrupted by the loud, abrasive sound of the first notch being cranked around the geode.

After several more cranks, the geode was locked firmly in place. “Okay well, that was the easy part,” Gordie said as he stretched his arms, preparing for the rest of the task. “Now’s the hard part.” With his foot firmly placed on the bottom lever, his hands placed a tight grip around the top lever and gave it a hard push.

Aviva watched with rapt attention, entirely transfixed by the steady process Mack was making on the stone. However, despite how inquisitive and earnest her intentions were, her eyes couldn’t help but trail up from the mechanism and take in a nice, long look at Mack himself. What she had assumed was nothing but soft flesh on his arms took definition and showed off all of that underlying muscle he had kept secret until now. With each push of the lever, his shirt stretched over his generous chest and lovingly clung to his pecs. Another tug of the lever, his shirt threatened to ride up his plush stomach and show the tiniest peek of skin. It was a mesmerizing display of contradictions, a push and pull of both hard and soft. A blush unknowingly came to Aviva’s face as she watched, being completely entranced by another person for the first time in forever. This quiet admiration was abruptly halted by a loud, resounding C R A C K! The sudden noise startled Aviva and elicited a panicked response, “Ahh what was that?!”

Gordie bent over slightly, resting his hands on his knees as he attempted to catch his breath. He soon looked up at Aviva and smiled, “It’s your newly hatched geode!” He walked over to the edge of the cutter and picked up the two halves. “Oh and look, it’s a boy!”

Aviva rolled her eyes as she let out a small, amused puff through her nostrils. “Very funny, Mack, but wha-... Oh.” Aviva stopped in the middle of her retort as Mack held up the newly cut geode, split in half and revealing a brilliant blue center. Absolutely mesmerized by it, Aviva very carefully took one half from Mack’s hands and closely inspected it. The pure blue interior was marked by striations of varying shades of light blue and white, making it resemble something akin to a piece of sedimentary rock. In the middle was a tiny deposit of crystals that seemed translucent, though it was hard to determine in the relatively low light.

At the sight of Aviva’s amazement, Gordie couldn’t help the wide smile that tugged at his lips. He took a step closer to Aviva and said, “You are a very lucky lady, Aviva, because this is, to the best of my knowledge, a blue agate geode.”

Aviva blinked and looked up at Mack in confusion. “Lucky? Is it super rare?”

Gordie shrugged before answering, “Not that rare but still very much in demand! You see, I’m surprised to see one of these here since they’re normally found in more tropical climates. Blue agate is a chalcedony, part of the quartz family of minerals. They’re typically found in areas with a lot of moisture and volcanic activity. Strangely enough they’re not really found in Alola. There’s plenty of theories as to why this is though I think it mostly has to do with the fact that none of Alola’s volcanoes are really inland so it doesn’t let itself to-” Gordie paused mid-sentence and took a second to consider just how much he was talking. Feeling a bit embarrassed by this, he cleared his throat and finished up, “A-anyway. I just didn’t expect to see one here is all. It’s a very special find.”

Aviva scrunched up her nose slightly as Mack cut his explanation short. While not exactly a people person, she couldn’t help but notice that Mack always seemed to stop himself right as he started getting into the interesting bits. Maybe this was just his way of keeping his dialogue brief with her so as to get rid of her sooner? She knew she wasn’t much for conversation so that seemed plausible. But then again, if that were true why would he keep trying to talk to her? She really couldn’t get a good read on Mack and this was slightly frustrating to say the least. Despite that, she had to admit she was enjoying herself here and that the geode was a pleasant surprise. “Thank you, Mack, it’s beautiful,” she said quietly as she traced a gentle finger over the striations in the stone, remarking to herself how cool and smooth it felt.

Gordie noticed for the tiniest moment there that Aviva’s expression fell slightly, as if an unpleasant thought crossed her mind. As he was set to ask her about it, he heard her quiet remark and soon the smile returned to his face. “You’re welcome, Aviva,” he said, watching her observe the geode and treating it as delicately as the finest glass sculpture. With the other half in his hand, he set it down on the pallet by Aviva and asked with renewed vigor, “So, how about we get to opening the rest of these?”

Aviva pulled her attention away from the geode and nodded rather enthusiastically, doing her best to subdue the excitement now welling up inside of her. Now she understood why the other kids in her class went so crazy over seeing their stones open like this. Of course, there’s a good chance their view wasn’t as nice as hers right now. Allowing herself to indulge in a basic human emotion, she set the blue agate down and settled in to take another good look at Mack as he started setting up for the next geode.

* * *

Gordie and Aviva followed this pattern for the next hour or so. Gordie would open a geode and get to talk about it for a bit all while Aviva quietly observed with a stray comment here or there. As they went on, he noticed that Aviva began to ask more and more questions. He worried for a bit if she was doing it for his sake but, much to his delight, it seemed she was genuinely curious about the minerals and his observations.

Soon enough, the pallet next to Aviva was lined with a cornucopia of geodes and practically resembled a museum gift shop due to the way Aviva had organized them. Despite being outside in some cold alley and placed on some old wooden planks, Gordie couldn’t help but find the display beautiful. While a bit disappointed that they were finally on the last geode, the soreness in his arms begged to differ. He knew he was bound to feel this in the morning but honestly? Totally worth it. “Ready for the last one?” he asked Aviva as he wiped the sweat from his brow with his forearm.

Aviva, eyes wide and blush apparent, held a closed fist to her mouth and nodded. At this point it felt like her brain was at war with itself, like some dormant part of it had woken up and was wreaking havoc and chaos amongst the rest of her thoughts. She felt immensely guilty for both staring at Mack like this and for allowing herself to enjoy it. She knew she was going to need a long, honest talk with herself later tonight but for now the sound of another crack permeated through the air.

Now unable to fully contain her excitement, she set his cardigan aside and eagerly made her way over to the geode. As her hand set to grab something cold and hard it instead made contact with something warm and soft. It seemed that Mack had the same idea. Her eyes widened as she had realized that, however brief, she made contact with his hand. Like a spark of electricity, a sudden jolt of human touch, she quickly retracted her hand and pulled it close to her. “S-sorry,” she muttered out in a low tone, mentally cursing herself for losing her composure like that.

Gordie, not at all a stranger to human contact, couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous himself as he pulled away from Aviva’s light touch. Aviva was quickly on the draw in regards to an apology. To this he simply shook his head and replied, “It’s fine. You don’t have anything to be sorry about.”

Upon hearing that, Aviva looked over at Mack and stared as she tried to settle her heartbeat. Her life constantly felt like she was going through with different levels of guilt. Guilt was as much of a part of her life as breathing is, there was ALWAYS something for her to feel sorry about. And yet, here was Mack telling her otherwise. She carefully observed his face, trying to detect even the smallest hint of pity or irony, but no. He was, from the looks of it, being genuine. Maybe this really was nothing to be sorry about? Hearing those words from Mack caused her to feel marginally lighter, as if the burden of being herself was lifted off her shoulders ever so slightly.

Gordie turned to look at Aviva and was ready to see her full-speed ahead into another mental meltdown. Instead, he was pleasantly surprised to see a rather calm expression on her face. He was more than grateful for this because he felt himself on the verge of his own mental meltdown. The contact, however brief, did something to him that he would rather not think about at the moment. Instead, he quickly turned his attention back to the geode and picked it up proper. With the geode in hand, he turned his head to look into its interior and took pause.

Aviva, her curiosity out-weighing her anxiety for a change, perked up slightly and tried to peer into Mack’s hands. “So, what type is it?” she asked as she continued to try to get a proper look.

“Hold still,” Mack said as he took a small side step away from Aviva and faced her directly.

“Huh?” Aviva arched her eyebrows, confused and slightly worried.

Gordie held up one half of the geode, making sure that from his point of view it was directly next to Aviva. He squinted as he turned the rock slightly. Now content with his findings, he said in a cheerful tone, “Well, what do you know? It’s a perfect match.”

Now incredibly confused, Aviva furrowed her eyebrows and asked sternly, “What are you talking abo-?” Before she could finish her sentence, Mack took a step forward and gently placed the mineral in her hands. She looked down and gasped lightly at the sight before her. A large array of white, translucent crystals lined the border as they cradled the true treasure within. In the center of the geode was an opulent array of purple crystals, each one glistening in the moonlight as they held their own mini galaxy within. Her eyes stared in wonder as each crystal caught the light and sparkled ever so slightly, bouncing and radiating like stars shimmering in the night.

A self-satisfied smile made its way onto Gordie’s face as he watched Aviva’s face shine like the geode she held so delicately in her hands. “See, what’d I tell you?” he said in a soft voice as his smile grew wider, “It’s a perfect match.”

Now realizing what he had meant, all Aviva could do was turn away to try to hide the immense blush overpowering her face. Her mind ran a mile a minute as she tried to figure out some reasoning behind his words. Surely he was joking right? She didn’t believe herself to be beautiful in the least bit so comparing her to this gorgeous stone felt like comparing trash to the very stars. The very idea of someone not seeing her as a sad, ugly being was laughable. This was all some huge practical joke that was nearing its punchline any second now.

And yet.

His tone felt so earnest.

She knew she was woefully inept at dealing with people and even worse at reading them. Despite her past experiences, despite her worry, despite every fiber in her being screaming for her to run away and pretend this has never happened, she looked up at Mack and said in a hushed tone, “...Would you like some tea?”


	5. The One Where They Have Some Tea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aviva invites Gordie to her apartment for some tea. Many things are discussed: rocks, Pokemon, baked goods, the deeply-rooted trust issues Aviva has and her inability to make friends, and rocks again. You know, your standard affair when making a new friend.

It was strange to think that earlier this day Gordie had woken up from the very couch he was currently sitting on. He honestly never envisioned himself finding his way back here again and yet here he was, in a room that was quickly becoming familiar to him. While he was finding it a bit unusual to settle in so quickly, Shuckle had no problems of the sort. At Aviva’s behest he had let Shuckle out of his ball and, without so much as a curious glance, the little bugger had made himself quite at home curled up on the worn armchair beside Gordie. Although, he couldn’t put too much blame on Shuckle. He felt his own sense of comfort wash over in this atmosphere, in this room.

As he mused on this, he heard a quiet clatter echo from the kitchen. “Oh, Aviva, let me take care of that,” he said softly as he quickly stood up and made his way over.

Aviva found herself struggling as she tried to carry the tray full of tea and snacks. It seemed that going without dinner tonight made her eyes bigger than her stomach (and her hands for that matter.) As she tried to balance the tray a second time, she watched a pair of hands gently pull it away from her. She looked up only to see Mack’s warm, reassuring smile. While she initially wanted to argue against this and insist that she can take the tray, she decided that maybe, this was okay too. With a small nod she averted her eyes and mumbled, “Thank you.”

His pleasant smile soon warped into a fairly confident grin as he felt he had made progress, another notch pulled, and another small crack around Aviva’s tough shell. However, this self-assured attitude soon faded as Gordie made his way over to the coffee table and realized that it was covered in the geodes they had brought in. “Uhh…” he thought out loud as his eyes scanned for any flat surface wide enough to set the tray down.

It took no time at all for Aviva to swoop in and carefully reposition the geodes onto one side of the table, leaving enough room for the wide array of snacks she had set up on the tray. Once Mack had set down the platter, she immediately began to prepare their tea. “How do you like your tea?” she asked as she set aside her freshly prepared cup.

Gordie, having taken his seat back on the couch, leaned forward and replied, “Oh! Just sugar is fine. Four scoops please if that’s alright with you.”

Aviva nodded and grabbed the small sugar bowl. She suddenly took pause as she finally registered his preference. “FOUR scoops?” she asked incredulously. Maybe his family used tiny spoons for the tea? Wanting to confirm, she held up the spoon and sugar bowl. “Four of this?”

“Uhh. Yeah?” Gordie replied. He had a bit of a sweet tooth, so what?

“Sheesh, dude,” Aviva said as she began scooping generous amounts of sugar into his cup. “Want me to just pour the tea straight into the sugar bowl next time to save me all this effort?”

Gordie leaned in closer, a smug smirk pulling at the edges of his lips. “Next time? Why, Aviva, I never thought you would be so forward!”

A monster of a blush instantly took over Aviva’s face. She whipped her head away and said in a brash tone, “W-whatever! Make your own damn tea!” She grabbed her own cup of tea and headed over to her usual armchair only to find that Shuckle had settled in quite nicely. With no other choices, she sat down on the opposite end of the couch with a huff as she downed her tea.

Despite how seemingly upset Aviva was, Gordie couldn’t help but find it incredibly endearing. He let out a small laugh as leaned over and finished preparing his tea. “Don’t worry, I would never impose like that. Besides,” he tapped the spoon against the now nearly empty sugar bowl, “I don’t think you’ve got the supply.”

Aviva’s expression changed from upset to outright shock, “What? Nuh-uh, there’s no way you put that much in your drink.” She could only watch in horror as Mack stirred his drink, the sugar not even dissolving completely, and took a generous gulp of his tea. A grimace spread across her features as she tried to fathom what that would taste like. “How can you stand that much sugar?”

Gordie let out an exaggerated gasp of refreshment. Truthfully, he did put too much sugar in his drink but for the sake of levity he decided to play it up a bit. He turned to Aviva and smiled, “How else can you expect someone as nice as me to stay as sweet as I am?” Aviva groaned and rolled her eyes. To this, Gordie held up his cup and gave a slight toast before taking another drink. As he set his drink down, he caught a quick glance at his bags. “Oh! Speaking of sweet things,” he said as he reached over to grab one of them in particular.

Aviva sat there with half-lidded eyes, bracing herself for what would no doubt be another terrible joke. Instead, she was pleasantly surprised to see him pulling out a pink box with a familiar logo stamped onto it. “Oh, is that from next door?” Aviva excitedly leaned over and opened the box. “Lumiose Galettes!” she said with a wide smile on her face as her eyes scanned over the delicious baked goods.

“Oh, it’s not just Lumiose Galettes,” Gordie said with an excited grin as he pulled out the second, smaller pink box that he had been saving all night. “Ta-da~!” Gordie exclaimed with a bit of fanfare as he opened the box and presented the prized slice of Alcreamie Surprise cake.

“Is that? I… How did you? No, that’s not what it is - Is it?” Aviva, now at a total loss for words, could only babble a bit as she watched Mack carefully take the slice out and place it onto one of the plates she had brought in.

Gordie let out a small laugh, absolutely relishing in Aviva’s complete and total surprise. “Yes; it’s an Alcreamie Surprise and yes; I brought it for you,” he said as he took a small fork off of the tray and stuck it into the cake. He handed the plate over to Aviva, who was still somewhere in between dumbstruck and shell-shocked. Dumbshocked? Sure, let’s go with that.

“I…” Aviva looked down at the slice of cake and could only stare in wide-eyed silence as her mind raced a mile a minute. She could feel her emotions well up inside her like an angry storm bringing with it a litany of questions. How did he get this slice? What game was he playing at by doing this? And why… why would he bother to be this nice to her of all people?

Seeing the look on Aviva’s face warp into utter loss and confusion, Gordie decided that now would be a good time to pipe up. He let out an amused scoff and said with a wide smile, “I guess this surprise really takes the cake huh?”

Oh that’d do it. In an instant Aviva was snapped out of her stupor and could only flash an annoyed glare at Mack, who in turn responded with a wink. She let out a loud groan before taking the fork and shoving a large portion of cake in her mouth, both to silence her frustration and to keep herself from laughing at such a stupid joke.

Honestly, the worst thing about Mack was that he thought himself so charming. The second worst thing was that... he was absolutely correct. Still though, it was not as if Aviva would ever tell him that. Keen to move past any more cavity-inducing actions, Aviva glanced over at the rocks scattered across the table and gestured towards them with her fork, “So, where did you learn about geodes?”

Gordie stealthily began to pour more tea into his cup, hoping it would dilute the overly sweet taste. Upon hearing Aviva’s question, he shrugged and responded casually, “Just part of the job really.”

“Oh?” Aviva raised an eyebrow as she took another bite of cake, “And what job is that?”

As soon as he heard this question, Gordie froze and a small panic began to set in. Shoot. Why did he answer like that? He could’ve just chalked it up to it being a side hobby that he learned about online. An uncomfortable stillness began to set in as his mind raced for an answer.

“Mack, did you hear what I said?” Aviva asked, worried that maybe she mumbled her question. Maybe it was too personal? Oh no, did she cross a line?

“A-ah yeah! Sorry, I was uh, I was deciding which of these lovely snacks to try,” he said, stumbling through an awkward explanation. “I uh work…” He had to think of something and NOW. What was the opposite of Rock Pokemon?

“I work with Ice Pokemon,” he blurted out.

Oh…. Shit. Wonderful. Way to go. Gordie mentally screamed at himself for not only being a bad liar but for being an even worse idiot.

“Ice Pokemon?” Aviva questioned. She tilted her head slightly as she thought about this. It made a lot of sense considering their town but that was a bit of a broad stroke. Almost everyone worked with Ice Pokemon in a way. Heck, she even had one herself. “Doing what exactly? I uh, if you don’t mind me asking that is,” Aviva asked, her curiosity outweighing her anxiety.

At that moment Gordie could think of the dozens of things his mother did with her own Ice Pokemon during the off season. Training? No, that’s too close to his actual job. Search and rescue? No, she would never buy that with his schedule. Beauty contests? No, as if he’d know what exactly a “beautiful” Pokemon is. Finally, with no other recourse, Gordie simply muttered, “Ice… sculptures?” His answer sounded a lot more like a question.

Despite that, Aviva perked up at his response. “Oh! How fascinating. I didn’t know such a thing existed. Well, I suppose those ice Swanlu sculptures have to come from somewhere, right?”

Gordie swallowed the hard lump in his throat as he forced out a meek, “Y-yeah.” He could steadily feel the lies already piling up and he knew deep in his heart that this was exactly what Milo was warning him about. Regardless, he was having a wonderful time and was not about to let any of this ruin it.

He quickly cleared his throat and said, “Anyway… that’s how I got into collecting minerals and gemstones. Well, actually at first it started out as a rock collection. When you work with Ice Pokemon, they tend to leave a lot of crystals and other interesting debris as a result of their moves.” At least this much was true. Gordie could easily recall how his first days in his mother’s gym consisted of him rifling through the mounds of snow for a chance to glance at the hail left behind by Frosmoth. It was fascinating to him as a child and even now he had a fair amount of respect for the debris produced by Ice Pokemon. All the same, he decided to continue, “Anyway, after that I started reading up on them and it sort of became this gateway into the crystals formed within the dirt. Once I took my first trip out to the Galar mines, it was all over for me,” he fondly smiled as he let out a small laugh, “I guess you could say they rocked my world.”

Ugh. He was so cute. Aviva rolled her eyes again at both this revelation and at the effect he had on her. The blush on her face betrayed her displeased reaction and so she tried to hide it by taking another bite of cake. With her plate discreetly blocking out her face she said, “So that’s why you know all about the geodes we get here in Galar?”

Gordie knew well enough that Aviva was trying to hide her reaction to his brilliant joke. Ah, but he was keen to get another laugh out of her yet! He would put a pin on that mission for later since Aviva had just asked him an incredibly enticing question. “To a certain extent! I try not to focus on one area in particular but I have to say, the gemstones we get here are quite fascinating. Oh! For example! Out in the Crown Tundra there’s a deposit of a unique form of quartz referred to as Ballimere Quartz. It’s named that on account of it is the only known location in the world to hold such a deposit! The quartz is dark and smokey in color so it never really fetches outrageous prices in the market which is honestly great news for us collectors. The other fascinating thing about it is th- ah.”

Gordie took a slight pause as he caught himself in yet another tangent. Now slightly embarrassed at this, he cleared his throat and averted his attention back to his drink. “A-anyway. It’s just a hobby born from my job is all,” he said with a shrug.

Aviva scrunched up her nose as Mack quickly changed subject yet again. Feeling uncharacteristically bold, she decided to outright ask,”Why do you do that?”

Surprised by her question, Gordie blinked quizzically and raised an eyebrow. “Do what?”

“You stop talking as soon as it gets interesting. It feels like you’re about to tell me more when you decide that…” The boldness in her questioning quickly began to fade and was replaced with worry. Maybe she shouldn’t pry into this? Maybe he thinks she’s too stupid to understand what he’s saying? Did she say something to discourage him? Not wanting to mince words, she muttered quietly, “... that you don’t like me.”

“What!?” Gordie exclaimed, not realizing the volume of his shock. Honestly, Aviva could easily take the gold in whatever mental gymnastics she pulled off to come to that conclusion! First and foremost, he had to put a stop to that thinking immediately. “No, Aviva, of course not! I like you. I like you a lot in fact! It’s just that… well…”

Aviva’s selective hearing refused to even acknowledge the first part of that statement. Afterall, someone liking her was so far beyond the realm of possibility that to even humor it would be a fantasy. She blew right past that part and focused on the second part, “Well?”

Gordie let out a sigh as he nervously rubbed his knees. “Well, not a lot of people have the same interest in minerals and gemstones like I do. Which is understandable of course! I’m not holding it against any of them. It’s just that… I tend to go on these long-winded tangents about them without realizing it, especially during training. People get sick of my spiels pretty quickly and usually have to tell me to knock it off. Not that I blame them, it must be frustrating to ask a simple question about Dwebbles and have that turn into an hour-long lecture about sedimentary rocks.”

He let out an uncomfortable laugh before pausing slightly, his elbows now resting on his knees as he leaned forward. He reached over for a galette and took a bite, hoping this would give him enough time to gather his thoughts. “I’ve... been trying to keep a better eye on it though. Usually I can catch myself within a minute of my tangent but not always.” A defeated sigh leaves his lips. “Sorry I got you wrapped up in all of that, I’m sure this is all very uninteresting to you. I know it sounds dumb but I can assure you it has everything to do with me and nothing to do with you.”

“Nothing to do with me?” Aviva asked as she set her slice of cake down onto the coffee table. “How can you assume it’s uninteresting for me and then decide it’s not about me?”

“Huh?” Gordie asked, genuinely confused by what Aviva was getting at.

Aviva pursed her lips. She could feel her heartbeat thumping loudly in her chest, the vibrations echoing in her brain and begging for her to shut up. However, there was something about seeing Mack this down and dejected that triggered this sudden wave of bravery. She decided to ride it for as long as possible. “I get why some people wouldn’t want you to just infodump on them, dude, but not everyone is like that. Sure, there’s a time and place for it but like, who are you to decide that I’m one of those people? That this isn’t a time and place for it? For what it’s worth, I really like hearing you talk about that sort of stuff. I think it’s really b-bodacious.”

“...Whuh!?” Gordie quickly whipped his head in Aviva’s direction. His disbelief and reaction catching Aviva off guard and causing her to wince. Did he just hear that? Did Aviva really mean that? Wait a minute, who in this day and age still uses the word “bodacious?” This was something new, strange and… exciting to him. He stared at Aviva intensely, silently begging her to confirm if what he heard was real.

Aviva froze like a Deerling in the headlights. She felt her throat tighten as her heart began to beat louder, the sound deafening and booming in her ears. Despite every synapse in her brain telling her to pull back, she clenched her teeth and decided to go for home. “You seem really informed and passionate about your hobby and that’s immensely interesting to me. I love listening to people who so enthusiastically and unapologetically enjoy what they do and the volumes of knowledge they hold. Knowledge that’s beyond my own frame of reference and helps me learn more about things I would never consider,” she spouted off in a panicked voice, hoping that her speedy words can outrun the anxiety attack quickly gaining on her. “So don’t tell me I wouldn’t care about it because I do! So please uh-... um…” she was quickly losing momentum and could feel the last of her nerves giving out, “Just… Please feel free to talk as much as you want around me. I don’t mind...” With an exhausted and disappointed sigh, Aviva reached her limit and stopped talking. She clenched her chest with her hand as she tried to calm her panting, doing her best to steady her nerves and save her brain from a mental meltdown.

Gordie could do nothing but stare dumbshocked at Aviva. Something happened there, he wasn’t quite sure, but he could feel the reverberations of her words strike through his heart and repeat throughout his brain like a mantra. Usually, whenever people let him talk at length, it was either born from the person being too polite or wanting something out of him. The only person he could really go on long tangents with was Milo but that fit more into the “too polite” category than out of a genuine interest. And yet, here was Aviva not only stating that she didn’t mind his long-winded spiels but in fact… welcomed them? He honestly didn’t know what to say. And, judging from her physical state, neither did Aviva.

_ “It must’ve taken a lot out of her to say that,” _ Gordie thought to himself as he watched Aviva carefully slow her breathing. He wanted to do something but feared that any contact would no doubt send her into another panic. Instead, he decided to pour her a fresh cup of tea and gently hold it out to her. “Thank you, Aviva,” he said in a warm tone, hoping this would calm her down.

Aviva took notice of the cup and glanced over at Mack, making eye contact once again. However, this time instead of it causing her anxiety to skyrocket it seemed to have… alleviated her panic. His bright blue eyes held a calm to them she didn’t notice before, like an endless sea with tranquil waves all beckoning her to rest upon their shore. Once again a strong blush came to her cheeks but she didn’t fight it. No, this time it felt... nice. Welcomed even. Her mind still unfit for verbal communication, she nodded in response and gingerly took the teacup from Mack’s hands. She couldn’t hide the bashful smile on her face as his thumb gently brushed up against hers.

Gordie stood transfixed at the woman before him, letting out a wistful sigh after his brief contact with her skin ended so soon. However fleeting it was though, it was more than enough to cause a light blush to spread across his own features. Once again this was something new, strange and… exciting to him. Not wanting to dwell on this any longer and for Aviva’s offer to go unnoticed, he smiled and said, “How about I bring out some of the stuff I brought from my own personal collection? You talk a big game about being able to stand my babbling but just wait until you get me started on amber.”

Aviva let out a small laugh as pulled her legs up onto the couch and grabbed some pillows. “Oh, I’m ready,” she said as she pulled the blanket off the top of the couch and made herself all comfy and cozy, ready for any lecture he was keen to throw at her.

* * *

Once again, Aviva and Gordie found themselves in a comfortable rhythm with one another. Gordie would go on and on about a piece from his collection, Aviva would comment and question sporadically, and repeat. Despite the hang-ups both had about continuing on with such a long discussion, it all happened so effortlessly. It felt so.. natural. 

Unfortunately it seemed that they got a little too comfortable with this. As Gordie set about grabbing another mineral, he caught a brief glance at the grandfather clock in Aviva’s living room. “Oh my God, is that REALLY the time?!” he shouted in utter disbelief.

“What?” Aviva reached over for her phone and quickly turned on the screen. “What do you mean by th- holy shit, dude!” she exclaimed as 01:20 flashed brightly on her display. How in the world did THAT happen? She furrowed her brow as she did her best to attempt remedial math,  _ “Mack had arrived at around 7pm so if it was 1am now… No! There’s no way he’s been here for 5 hours!” _ And Aviva was correct on that front. He had in fact been here for 6 hours but math was never her forte. Now in panic mode, Aviva shot up from her seat and began to gather all the trash and remaining snacks onto the tray. “I have to open the shop in like, 8 hours!” She had to open her shop in 9 hours. Once again, math was not her forte.

Gordie was equally in a rush now as he set about gathering his things. While he didn’t have anything planned in the morning, he liked to keep as close to his gym schedule as possible. He had also known that his Pokemon were now accustomed to their morning feeding routines and the last thing anyone wants to deal with is a hangry Tyranitar. In the midst of his frantic tidying up, he bumped into Aviva who was doing the same. “Ah- Sorry, Aviva,” he said as he paused, stepping back a bit and turning his attention to her.

“O-oh, no um, I’m the one who should be sorry,” Aviva murmured as she looked up at him. An odd stillness fell over the two of them as their sudden panic came to a grinding halt, both of them simultaneously realizing just how long they chatted and that they were standing the closest they’ve ever been to each other.

Gordie nervously cleared his throat and said, “I’m sorry for staying over so long.” He knew he should take a step back to give her more space but, truthfully it was nice getting to see her this close. He quietly observed that against the gentle glow of the fireplace her hair seemed to sparkle like dozens of little stars trapped in the void of space. Surely it must’ve been the result of her shampoo but all the same, it was nice.

Aviva shook her head and replied, “N-no it’s fine, Mack. I’m sorry for not noticing the time.” Once again her body was screaming at her to move, to run away, to do something other than stand so close to Mack that she could see the delicate contour of his cheekbones. He wasn’t backing away either and this left her all the more flustered. Unable to handle this odd game of Torchic, she took a step back.

Gordie let out a small, disappointed sigh but decided that perhaps this was for the best. He stood there aimlessly for a bit before his eyes caught sight of the geodes still on the table. “Say,” he said as he picked one up, “Would you like me to polish these for you?”

“Huh?” Aviva looked up from her tray and directed her attention to the geode in Mack’s hand, “I thought you didn’t like extracting the minerals from them?”

Gordie shook his head, “No, I don’t mean that. I mean that, these edges are awfully rough and some of the sediment in the geode has dulled the crystals inside. I can smooth out the edges for you and really get these beauties to sparkle.” He said assuredly, flashing Aviva a confident smile.

“Mmn,” Aviva mused on this for a bit as she looked over at the rest of the geodes scattered across her table. “I’d feel bad,” she said bluntly, “You’ve already done so much for me, Mack. Don’t get me wrong, I totally appreciate it. But you don’t need to do anymore for me. Consider your debts for this morning repaid, yeah?”

Gordie let out an amused scoff. “Aviva, this isn’t about me repaying a debt. I wouldn’t have been here for more than 6 hours if it was just about paying you back for some eggs and berries. All of this is something I would like to do, if you’ll let me of course.”

A confused, slightly annoyed look made its way onto Aviva’s face as she furrowed her brow. “But why? Why do you want to do it? More importantly, why do you keep wanting to do this stuff for me?” she snapped.

Taken slightly aback by Aviva’s attitude, all Gordie could think to do was shrug and simply say, “Because I want to.”

“Bullshit!” Aviva barked as she angrily set the tray down onto the table with a loud, abrasive clang that managed to stir the sleeping Shuckle. “You can’t be doing all of this nice stuff for me and think I’ll just accept it! You can’t just buy me cake, cut my geodes, and hang out with me and expect me to think that this is something you want to earnestly do. Just tell me what you honestly want from me!” Her frustration and confusion with all of this reached a boiling point, she bit back the hot tears that threatened to ruin her composure. “NO ONE is this nice to me without wanting something in return. So please… PLEASE tell me what you want.” Her last statement teetering on the edge of pleading.

“Aviva…” All Gordie could do was stand there as he dealt with the full brunt of Aviva’s anger. He knew she had her social hang-ups and he knew she wouldn’t be an easy person to get through, but only now did he see the full extent of the hurt she’s been holding onto. He wanted desperately to hug and comfort her but… that felt like adding more fuel to the fire. A quick glance to his right revealed that his Shuckle was staring at him with accusatory eyes, as if this was all his fault. Truthfully, it probably was. But as always, he was never one to stand around and do nothing. He reached out and took her hand. “Aviva,” he started, keeping a firm grip on her hand as Aviva’s instincts instantly tried to pull it back. “You know what I really want from you?”

Aviva took a deep breath and braced herself. This was the part when everything blew up in her face, when she would become the laughing stock yet again, and when the universe would remind her that she was not at all fit for human companionship. Mack’s grip on her hand burnt like hot coals, the pain and heat too much for her small, cold world to bear.

“I want your friendship.”

* * *

They say that at one point all the regions were formed into one super continent until a world-shattering event occurred and separated all of them. The magnitude of such an event came second to the devastation currently wreaking havoc in Aviva’s mind. The cacophony of wild confused screams reverberating in her mind remained unheard as she stood there, wide-eyed and stunned silent.

Gordie let out a tired sigh. He knew Aviva was bound to take this hard but this was on a whole other scale. Not wanting to let Aviva continue whatever mental hell she was going through, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

That did the trick as Aviva was now painfully aware of just how long he had been holding her hand. However, this time she did not try to pull away. Instead she only stared at him, her mind calming down and doing it’s best to figure out just what Mack had said. After a long bit of silence she finally murmured, “...Why?”

Already seeing that question come a mile away, Gordie was quick to answer, “Because I like hanging out with you, Aviva. I think you’re really fun and interesting in a way that I’ve never seen in another person. And call it a crazy hunch but, after allowing me to talk your ear off all night, I’m pretty sure you like hanging out with me too.”

Despite the utter turmoil still occurring in the back of Aviva’s mind, she managed to eke out a small but noticeable nod.

That was more than enough for Gordie. A large grin strode about his face as he exclaimed, “Great! So, we’re friends then?”

Once again, all Aviva could manage was a small nod. She turned her head away slightly, her white bangs only slightly obscuring her bashful smile. She knew she would need to have a long talk with herself about this and formally evaluate the situation but, for now, this was fine. Truthfully, this was more than fine for her.

Now fully satisfied with the results, Gordie gently let go of Aviva’s hand. He knew she wouldn’t want to dwell on this for long (at least, not while he was still here) so he turned his attention back to the geodes. “So, still cool with me taking these bad boys? I promise I’ll return them looking better than ever!”

Aviva held her hand close to her chest as if she could feel the residual heat of Mack’s hand. She was suddenly pulled out of her contemplation by Mack’s question. “Oh. Yeah, that’s fine,” she said as she had a hard time getting her tone to return back to normal. She cleared her throat, hoping that would dispel the air of awkwardness still lingering. “Ah, you know. You can just keep half of them if you’d like.”

“Huh?” Gordie was in the midst of gathering the geodes when he heard Aviva’s statement. “Aw, I could never take your stuff like that, Aviva. I appreciate the offer but Arceus knows I’ve got more than enough.” He chuckled to himself as he continued to bag the rest.

Aviva shrugged. “Okay then, I suppose if you don’t want a piece of genuine Unovan citrine then that’s your decision.”

Gordie paused. “...Well, I guess I could keep a couple. Since you’re insisting.”

Aviva let out a small, quiet laugh and picked up the tray. “That’s what I thought,” she said with an unusual air of smugness as she resumed tidying up.

* * *

“Okay, let’s see. Keys, phone, bags, wallet,” Gordie continued to list off items as he began to pat down several parts of himself, making sure he had everything before setting off for the night.

“Pokemon?” Aviva questioned playfully as she held up a single Pokeball.

“Ah right. The little brat was stubborn to leave wasn’t he?” Gordie said with an amused grin as he took Shuckle’s ball from Aviva. Honestly, he felt himself a bit stubborn to leave as well but he supposed that was less cute and innocent than Shuckle’s own refusal. He then began to grab the various bags he brought with him.

“You sure you got all that?” Aviva asked in a concerned tone. That pipe cutter by itself looked heavy as sin, she couldn’t imagine how much heavier everything must be with the added geodes. “I can call you a taxi if you need a hand.”

In an effort to quell her fears (and to show off) Gordie effortlessly lifted the bags and set them over his shoulders. “What, like it’s hard?”

Ugh. This man. Aviva rolled her eyes as she turned her head away in an attempt to hide her blush.

Gordie held his head up as a cocky grin flashed across his face, beyond pleased with himself to see a move typically reserved for his fans be so effective against Aviva. As he was about to put away his phone an idea popped into his head. “Say, you mind giving me your number? You don’t have to if you don’t want to of course!”

Aviva blinked, “...Oh! Yeah, this is 1600 Hero’s Path.”

Gordie pressed his lips together as he tried to stifle a groan. This woman sometimes… “No, Aviva,” he said gently, “I mean your  _ phone _ number. So I can text you and stuff.”

“My phone number?” Aviva questioned, fishing out her own Rotom phone and staring at it with a perplexed look on her face. It seems that she had forgotten this device had uses other than watching crafting videos and discreetly reading harlequin novels. She knew texting was a thing of course. However, she couldn’t recall the last time she had texted an actual human being. This was made all the more apparent as she scrolled through her messages and found that they consisted of nothing but spam, scams, and tracking numbers.

Gordie decided to take the initiative seeing as Aviva was having difficulty wrapping her mind around this concept. “Just hold out your phone like this so I can get your contact info.”

Aviva carefully watched as with a few quick swipes Mack was able to open up a different interface that she had never seen before. She nervously held out her phone and watched as Mack’s screen began to scan the area before ending the operation with a “Ping!” In an instant she saw her contact card pop up on Mack’s phone before sliding into his contacts folder. “Huh!” she said, staring at her phone with newfound curiosity.

Gordie grinned as he tapped on his phone, “Now, let me just send you a text and-”

Aviva jumped slightly as a similar “Ping!” rang out from her own phone. She opened the message only to find it consisted of nothing but the sunglasses emoji along with a thumbs up.

“And now you have my number!” he said with a cheerful laugh. Keen to end tonight on this good note, Gordie pocketed his phone and announced, “Well, I better be heading off then! See you tomorrow, same time same place?”

Aviva returned her attention to him and nodded, “Sure, if you’d like.” She was still not 100% sure about this whole “friendship” thing so it was best for her to temper her own expectations. Regardless, she headed towards the front door of her shop and opened it for Mack. She couldn’t help him with the bags but she could at least do this. As she watched him set for the door, she suddenly remembered one last thing Mack needed to take with him. “Oh wait!” she exclaimed as she fished something out of her own pocket. “Here,” she said, placing something in Mack’s hand.

Gordie raised an eyebrow as he felt something hard and plastic in his hand. Just as he was about to look at it, he was promptly pushed out of her shop.

“Okay good night, Mack!” Aviva called out as she shut the door.

Gordie stood there gobsmacked, both by the sudden rush of cold air and by Aviva’s brash actions. He was immensely confused until he decided to take a look at what Aviva had given him. “Ah,” he said as a warm smile slowly spread across his face. In the palm of his hand was an Alcreamie vinyl toy. No doubt the one she had received in tonight’s slice of cake. It was most likely a duplicate, seeing as how organized Aviva was with her collection, but all the same. The sentiment was very much appreciated.

He turned to look over his shoulder only to spot Aviva, peeking out from behind the curtain with her face clearly anticipating his reaction. Oh, it was downright adorable. Gordie held up the figure and flashed her a grin. “Good night, Aviva!” he said, watching the shy booknerd wave goodbye before she closed the curtains.

Gordie continued to stand there as he watched the lights go out one by one, envisioning the nightly routine Aviva had in place. Once the last light had gone out, he turned and began to make his way back home. Despite the chill air licking at his face, he couldn’t help but feel an immense, comfortable warmth take hold of his body.

The oncoming Winter suddenly didn’t seem so bad if he had Aviva around.


End file.
